Reality Check: Help! I'm Stuck In FF9!
by Rayth Ulthran
Summary: Formally known as Help! I'm Stuck In FF9 Well this one way to spend the school holidays, stuck in a world that's full of monsters hellbent on killing you! That's what happens to Chris, Bruce and Neil as they get teleported straight into Gaia!
1. Chapter 1: An Unusual Day

Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Of course I own myself but apart from that...  
  
Author's Note: Hi y'all! I saw a few of these fanfics over the net and decided to have a go at making one. I'd really like some feedback on this so just tell me if I'm doing ok or not!  
  
  
Chapter 1: An Unusual Day  
  
"God I finally have some time myself!" I mutter as my parents leave the house to go shopping. I dash into my extremely messy bedroom and hit the On button on my Psone and watch the opening titles on FF9 roll on. I grab the controller and selected New Game and sat back as the familiar scene of the boat in the storm roll by. Suddenly the PS starts crackling. Muttering various curses I twiddle around with the cable at the back only for lid to pop open and engulf me in a bright white light.  
Before I have chance to do anything I'm suddenly falling through the light.  
I hit the cobbled pavement badly as my arm twists around my back and my head hits the floor painfully. I get up and cast a puzzled look at my surroundings. I'm in a old looking town with people wearing old fashioned clothes are walking around going about their daily business of shopping for fruit and veg and other various things. Some are casting strange looks at me, and I suddenly realise why. I'm wearing my fave shirt sporting a Japanese dragon and various icons of Japanese culture and some Reebok jogging pants. I must've stuck out like a needle in a pack of coloured elastic bands! A sudden gasp of excitement sounds out as everyone around me looks into the sky in amazement. Looking around, I do the same and see the strangest sight ever to cross my eyes. A wooden ship with a mermaid figurehead is flying overhead with the aid of half a dozen propellers, casting a huge shadow over everyone. I suddenly realise that I have seen this many times before. Excited chatter rises up around me.  
"It's the Prima Vista!"  
"Tantalus are here!"  
It suddenly strikes me why this place seems so familiar. I turned my eyes towards the airship's destination and, sure enough, the sight of the most beautiful castle in the world greets my eyes. I'm in Alexandria! (in case any of you lot are slow enough not to figure out for yourselves.:) ) I must have been sucked into the FF9 world by my Playstation! Cool! I quickly searched around and saw Vivi staring up at the Prima Vista. Sadly I couldn't see Zidane but that would be obvious because he's in a dark room saying "sure is dark" at the moment. I thought out my options:  
1. Stay here and look around.  
2. Follow Vivi.  
I decided to follow Vivi because you have no idea how different Alexandria looks when you're actually there. I saw Vivi toddle off towards the castle. I also decided to stay out of view just in case I screwed something up by just being here. Cautiously I walked after him, a dozen questions flying through my head. How do I get back to my world? What am I going to do if I'm attacked? How am I going to get Gil? What does a potion taste like?  
Later I saw Vivi walk up to the ticket booth in the central square and evesdropped on the conversation , even though I knew it off by heart. I heard Vivi's cry as he discovered the ticket was fake and the ticket master's consolation of the few playing cards. As Vivi walked off towards the alleyway, again I followed him into the darkness where I heard the curse of the signmaker. That guy really pissed me off calling Vivi a klutz so I decided to step in and stick up for Vivi but I was too late as the bastard had already walked off. I heard Puck talking about the fake ticket and suddenly had a crazy idea. I walked towards them as they were talking about the `getting in` part  
"Hey do you think you could get me in? I asked Puck  
"Sure...if you become my slave as well!"  
"Ok, sounds like a deal!"  
"First you two go stand over there and check to see if anyone's coming"  
So Vivi and me walk over to the alley's entrance to check  
"All clear?" Puck called   
"I-It's clear" Vivi called back  
I knew I had to get onto the Prima Vista before the play ended and it went down into Evil Forest. Puck grabbed the ladder on the nearby wall where the signmaker had left it.  
"Now engage according to mission parameters!"   
(I just remembered how corny that sounds!) We all ran down the alley towards the chapel and dashed inside. It was pretty small for a chapel, no altar or anything but only a small ladder going up into the bell tower.  
"You go first, it could be dangerous" Puck ordered Vivi  
As Vivi looked up the ladder the was a loud crash and something that sounded like...  
"Kupo!" the small furball shouted as it bounced off the black mage's head and walked towards me.   
"Hi?" I said as it toddled up to me. God it was cute, it's little pom-pom twitching and it's little eyes peering up at me.  
"Kupo meet slave no.1 and slave no.2" Puck said as he was getting the ladder into position so he could climb up the one that was already there.   
"I sorry, I enter you in Moogle Diary"  
As Puck disappeared up the shaft into the bell tower, Stiltskin the travelling Moogle walked in and engaged in conversation with Kupo. As Puck shouted and bawled at us to climb the ladder Stiltskin left and Vivi went up the ladder. I followed him cautiously, just in case there were anymore falling objects, into the darkness...  
  
  
  
  
  
The next chapter should get more interesting R+R please! 


	2. Chapter 2: The Castle of Dreams

Disclaimer: You already know what I'm going to say don't you?  
  
Hi I'm back after a very short time to bring you an update so here you are! Enjoy!  
  
Chapter 2- The Castle Of Dreams  
  
I slowly clambered up the ladder behind Vivi as Puck was spouting out every form of abuse you could think of. God it was degrading being a slave but it would be the only way I could get into the castle to follow the Prima Vista. We reached the top and followed Puck along the thin roof until we came to a plank leading to the next roof. Puck crossed easily but I knew there was no way I'd be able to walk on them. Vivi stopped suddenly and swayed slightly. I remembered that Vivi was afraid of heights.  
"Don't worry, it won't fall." I told him  
"Just pretend you're on the ground," Puck said impatiently  
Vivi trembled as he crossed the plank but he made it. Now it was my turn, I stepped back and took a running jump, which barely landed me on the other side. I looked back and saw I was only an inch off the edge. We traversed across many more planks until Puck turned to us  
"Oh yeah I don't know your names"  
"Vivi"  
"I'm Chris"  
"I'm Puck, Your names are kinda funny"  
"And Puck isn't?" I muttered under my breath  
We carried on until something shiny caught my eye. It was a dagger and some gil. I picked them up and waved the dagger around testing it. It was pretty light and was easy to use. At home when my parents were out I'd always practice moves with a kitchen knife just in case we faced a thief. Looks like it turned out pretty handy. I kept hold of it until I could get a sheath and caught up with the two. Puck brought the ladder down with a bang so we could get onto a platform leading into the castle. Cautiously we jogged inside...  
  
The castle's interior was amazing in so many ways. You could visit a castle like this in your dreams. The sword-like crystal in the centre gleamed in the sunset. We climbed down from the scaffolding and crouched behind the waiting crowd just outside the stage of the Prima Vista. I looked behind me and discovered that I could see the royal box. I could easily see Queen Brahne because, let's face it, it isn't very hard is it? Behind her I could see Steiner and Beatrix. But I couldn't recognise who the person wearing the white dress was. Then the penny dropped, it was Dagger! She looked so different in real life than in the game. Suddenly there was a glint of light from Steiner. I didn't have much time to see anything else because there was an eruption of cheers from the audience as fireworks exploded from all over the stage. I must admit it was pretty impressive. The band above the stage played their tune as the stage opened itself out. A large man in a long robe stepped out onto the stage...  
"Ladies and gentlemen, Queen Brahne and Princess Garnet, our rooftop viewers, Tantalus proudly presents `I Want To Be Your Canary`!"  
Baku waddled of the stage and came back on with Benero and Zenero. Marcus stood before them, sword drawn. Seconds later Zidane, Blank and Cinna charged onto the stage, weapons also drawn and recited the lines that were exactly like the ones in the game. Then they charged into battle, Zidane took out Zenero with a fake slash to the head. It was all perfectly choreographed with a few SFX such as Meteo and Pyro were even used. Blank and Zidane carried out their sword fight with perfect moves and of course the crowd loved it. Even Vivi and Puck were clapping so hard I thought they're hands were going to drop off. The play carried on with thrills and many tears but suddenly I heard a noise to my left. I took out my Dagger and looked around only to see two guards running straight towards us.   
"Oh shit!"   
"Uh oh run for it!" Puck screamed  
We ran along the front of the stage and I took a quick glance at what was happening. Dagger lay playing dead and so was Marcus Baku was crying fake tears and Steiner was going overboard. Just then Vivi tripped in front of me and I had no time to stop so I went flying head over heels as well.   
"See ya fools!" and with that Puck ran off. I jumped to my feet, grabbed Vivi's hand and dragged him along towards the stage. He was suprisingly light but his hand felt cold. We ran onto the stage together and as I retreated towards the stage exit, dagger drawn, adrenaline running sky high, Vivi jumped over the prone Dagger and pointed his hands at the oncoming guards.  
"D-don't come any closer!!"  
I saw his hands start to glow a fiery red and a fireball flew out of his outstretched hands. Unfortunately, the ball went completely off target and set fire to Dagger's white mage cloak.  
"Hot hot hot!" she screamed as she pranced about the stage finally throwing the cloak of to reveal her familiar orange and white clothes. Of course while this was happening I was stood holding the young solider at bay with my dagger. Meanwhile Dagger and Steiner were shouting at each other.  
"Steiner don't follow me any more!"  
The two soldiers ran up to Steiner  
"Ready for orders Captain!"  
"Princess, I'm afraid I cannot comply. Seize them!"  
Zidane jumped between Dagger and Steiner and so did Marcus, Cinna and Vivi. I ran up to them and stood ready beside them. My heart was thumping in my chest. This was my first taste of battle. Marcus and Cinna struck at one guard who recoiled in pain.  
"My fury ends here!" and he ran off   
Vivi flames the other guard who makes up a crap excuse and ran away too.  
Zidane slashes towards Steiner's neck but he parries away that blow but my slash completely misses and I feel a sharp pain across my arm. I fly off balance into a near wall and drop to the floor. I stare at my arm numbly as crimson blood trickles onto the floor, staining it. Luckily it was my left arm so I still had my dagger clutched firmly in my right hand. I looked up to see Steiner holding his shoulder in pain. The ship lurched forwards and I feel a cool breeze cross my face. As I look at my arm I can only describe it as something of a documentary for the body. The wound clotted and started disappearing very quickly. I looked around only to see Dagger had closed her eyes and her rod was glowing. My wound had almost completely healed up, but I remembered that a cure spell could only do so much. I got up and ran over to see what was happening only to have a huge harpoon almost impale me on the floor. Another hit the window above me and shattered it into countless pieces, spraying them like shrapnel everywhere. I looked towards the castle and saw the cannon being readied.  
"Everyone! Look out" I screamed as I hit the deck. The cannon fired a blazing ball of fire towards the ship, which turned out to be some sort of hellish creature. As Steiner decided to attack us the bomb just lingered behind him slowly growing bigger. When it was almost 7 times bigger than it was when we started, it exploded. Everyone was thrown backwards in the explosion. I hit a wooden wall so hard I smashed straight through it and lost consciousness. The last thing I remember was seeing was an unconscious Vivi before everything faded to black...  
  
  
I want you to give me a rating on 1-5  
1. This is so cool! You must write another chapter!  
2. Pretty good, carry on  
3. Ok  
4. Rubbish  
5. This is the biggest pile of crap I've ever seen, if you write another chapter then I'll have to personally hunt you down and kill you!  
  
The humour should start coming out in later chapters so please carry on reading! 


	3. Chapter 3: The Heart Of Evil Forest

Disclaimer: I don't own anything OK! I own the main character but apart from that I do NOT own FF9 or Lucozade  
  
If anyone out there doesn't like self-insertion Fanfics then please don't bother reading this. It gets me down when I get people who review just to tell me they hate the category that this resides in. So do me a favour... STOP BUGGING ME!!! Anyways here's the new chapter! Enjoy!  
  
Chapter 3- The Heart Of Evil Forest  
  
What felt like an age must have been only a few seconds because suddenly I was awake again to see the tops of trees whipping against the side of the crippled Prima Vista. Flames licked at the towers where the spinning propellers were based as an explosion rocked the ship as it lurched towards the oncoming trees. She was going down and no one could stop it. Suddenly the ship hit the ground and everyone who was still on the deck was thrown off in the massive explosion. I shielded my face as the flames came rushing towards me. I felt myself flying through the air towards whipping branches. It was like an out of body experience, seeing myself propelled high into the air. I landed twisted and exhausted in the mud and just lay there, breathing heavily. I had no idea how hard it was doing what these people did as everyday life. There was a rustling beside me and I reached for my dagger, hoping that I hadn't lost it in the explosion. I found it my pocket and slowly turned my head towards the rustling sounds coming from a bush. A large brown wolf like creature jumped out at me and I brought the dagger up letting beast impale itself on the blade. It howled painfully and fell over. I hoped it was dead as I climbed slowly to my feet. I was drenched in its blood. I looked at the beast as it's eyes rolled in pain and finally closed. I suddenly heard a scream and the sound of running footsteps coming in my direction. I rounded the corner only to discover Dagger and Vivi running straight towards me with a massive plant like creature chasing them.  
"You have to be kidding me!" I shouted as I ran alongside them "This place is killer!"  
"Just run!" Dagger shrieked back at me. We ran through a small stream and up a slope of wet mud where we stopped to see if it was still behind us. The stream was eerily silent.  
"I-I think we lost it." Vivi sighed.   
Suddenly it dived from above us and trapped Dagger in its cage-like bundle of vines on it's head.   
"Oh god!" I gasped as Dagger struggled inside.  
Steiner and Zidane ran up behind us and took battle positions.  
"Release the princess!" Steiner ordered unsuccessfully.  
"Like its going to listen to you!" Zidane shouted back sarcastically. Suddenly he was illuminated in a bright white light. He was changing, his clothes disappeared (not that way you pervert!) to be replaced by purple fur. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen.  
"What the!"  
"I don't know. It increases my power somehow"   
"Could it be Trance! I've heard of it, it's induced by a surge of emotion." Steiner explained  
"Let's take this thing!" Zidane shouted as he unleashed a blast of pure energy at the creature, which returned by whacking Steiner with a vine. I ducked under the whipping vines and landed a slice on the creature itself, dropping one of its vines to the floor twitching. Steiner brought his sword down on it's head and it screamed in fury, then reached up to the ceiling and disappeared into the canopy of leaves, leaving Dagger's screams fading into the distance.  
"PRINCESS NOOOOOOOOOO!" Steiner screamed as he dropped to his knees  
"I-I couldn't do anything, I was too scared" Vivi whimpered  
"The little shit took me by surprise." I sighed   
I almost jumped 5 feet into the air when another cage-like plant ambushed Vivi.  
"Not again!" I said tired. The blood that had drenched my shirt had started to dry and was becoming very stiff. Vivi pointed his hands down at the creature's head and released a ball of flame at it.  
"That was pretty effective." Vivi said to himself as he sat in the cage while we hacked at the foul...thing. Zidane stuck his dagger into its neck as thick black blood ran down his hands. It gurgled as it's last breath escaped from its lungs and its cage fell apart. Vivi jumped off the burnt creature and walked over to us.  
"Whoa...t-thanks"  
"No problem" I replied   
Just then, the cage the let out a final sigh and covered us in a green mist. Zidane managed to jump clear but Steiner, Vivi and me were hit. My body felt weak as I slumped to the floor and fell unconscious...  
  
I moaned weakly as I awoke, my entire body felt as if it was on fire. Blank stood looking at me.   
"What?" I asked him  
"You're lucky that Zidane got you outta there otherwise you'll be mincemeat in around 5 minutes."  
"Why?"  
"The plants in this forest reproduce by planting seeds in the body of other creatures, and when they start growing, it's `hasta la vista` and you're toast"  
"So what's gonna happen now?"  
"You're gonna drink this unless you wanna die" He waves a bottle of purple liquid in front of my face for emphasis. I take the bottle and sit up, after much protest from my aching body.   
"I'd rather take the first choice." I said as I pulled the cork out. The stuff smelled terrible but I didn't want to die, so I took a deep breath and gulped it down. I'd always hated medicine but this took the biscuit. It tasted putrid as I almost choked on it  
"Ewwwww!" I blurted out coughing madly. Blank just grinned and walked off leaving me with a horrific taste in my mouth. I looked at my surroundings and saw Vivi asleep on a bed across the room. I closed my eyes and thought about what was happening and tried to get things straight.  
1. I was stuck in the FF9 world  
2. I didn't know how I was to get back to my world.  
3. How was I going to able to explain to them where I came from?  
Money wasn't a problem at the moment and I had a weapon although it wasn't one I preferred. Still it would have to do until I could find a shop. Zidane walked into the room and Vivi woke up and almost shot through the ceiling in surprise. He sat up and started talking to Zidane. I didn't catch most of it because I was half-asleep, the medicine had probably made me drowsy. I heard the last few sentences though, Zidane was asking Vivi whether he wanted to come and help him save the princess. He agreed after Steiner joined him and persuaded him.  
"Hey, don't think you can ditch me that easily." I said too quickly without thinking.   
"Who are you anyway?" Zidane asked  
"The name's Chris, I'm coming along with you whether you like it or not"   
"Sure, we could use an extra hand in battle."  
"Fine." I said as I picked up my dagger from the table. We walked through the wreckage of the stricken airship and I looked at the wounded lying all over the place, burnt timber had crushed a few of the members of the crew. We were approaching the exit when Blank went up to Zidane holding another bottle of the `seed remover`  
They chatted for a while and Blank handed Zidane the bottle of medicine. After a long trek through the forest we finally came to a spring where a moogle sat on a tree stump, peering at us through its cute little eyes. I took a quick sip of water from the spring, the results were like drinking 200 bottles of Lucozade. We carried on trekking our way through the low hanging branches and finally came to a small cave. Rumbling sounds could be heard coming from within, so we cautiously sneaked inside. There was the biggest weed I'd ever seen had grown in the centre. At the back of the cave Dagger was firmly strapped against the wall covered in vines and completely unconscious.  
"Stay back! Alexandria would be disgraced if a common thief was to save the princess."  
"Glory hound" I replied with a slight hint of sarcasm in by voice.  
"You plan on taking that thing on by yourself?" Zidane shouted back at Steiner who remained speechless. Vivi hands lit up and fired a fireball towards the creature's thrashing vines but completely missed as it went sailing out the caves entrance, Steiner dived thrusting his sword at it's head but it just brushed him aside with it's vines. I ran straight towards it dodging from side to side as the vines thrashed wildly at me. I stabbed the side of it but saw at the last minute a barbed vine whipping straight towards me. I didn't have enough time to move as the vine crashed into the side of my body, causing a sickening cracking sound. I span around and dropped to the floor, out of breath, blood flowing freely from an open wound in my lower abdomen. The creature coiled another vine and sent me sliding across the floor, grazing my back and smashing my head into the rocky side of the cave. There was a terrible ringing sound in my ears and I could hardly breathe or move. I brushed my muddy hair out of my eyes and a scream of pain bubbled up inside me and erupted from my mouth. I coughed and watched my blood trickle away slowly. I heard a primal scream burst out from the plant brain as I saw, to my surprise, Blank driving his sword into it's eye and Zidane was slashing wildly at the vines around him, bleeding heavily from a slash on his forehead. It let out another mind rattling scream and fell still, slowly dissolving into the floor. Zidane, Steiner and Blank went to cut down Dagger while Vivi ran over to me holding a small bottle containing a blue liquid.  
"H-here, drink this." He said as he handed me the bottle.  
"If it tastes anything like that seed remover did I'm gonna go insane!" I replied as ripped out the cork. I put the potion to my lips and drank it. It tasted smooth and milky, like a milkshake only without a flavour. I looked down at the horrible gash in my side and watched it closing slowly and clotting over, even the blood was disappearing from the floor. I shakily stood up and walked over to where Steiner was feeding Dagger the medicine.  
"Try to drink all of it, princess." Steiner whispered  
Dagger coughed and murmured but remained unconscious. Suddenly the floor in the centre of the cave collapsed and two large insects crawl out. Steiner picks Dagger up and everyone else jumps to their feet. I grabbed my bloodstained dagger from the floor and followed everyone towards the mouth of the cave, only to be blocked by the arrival of another insect.   
"We're surrounded!" Zidane called out.   
"This way!" Blank led us up a steep slope of dead vines through a hole in the wall and we ran like the wind being chased all the way. After a few minutes of running Steiner, carrying Dagger, Vivi and I ran out into the open fields outside the forest. I turned around and saw Zidane diving and jumping to dodge vines that were following him with a small scroll in his hand. He dived out into the open, rolled and jumped to his feet. The Evil Forest turned to stone. Zidane was banging on the solid wall of vines in front of him.  
"That idiot! Blank..."  
We turned away and walked out into the open fields...  
  
  
  
Like it? It was a pretty long chapter this time. After receiving a review I realised that nobody knows what Chris looks like, Thanks crystal of psyche for alerting me to this!  
  
Name: Chris Heald  
Age: 14  
Eye colour: Crystal blue  
Hair colour: Muddy brown  
Bio: Chris likes to play his FF games and lives with his parents and his 9-year-old sister called Mel. He always hopes one day he'll be a hero and has some pretty strange dreams, most of the time they are premonitions of the future (you'll see!).  
  
See ya when I see ya! 


	4. Chapter 4: Peeking Into My Future

Disclaimer: You already know so I'm not going to bother telling you.  
  
  
  
Chapter 4- Peeking At My Future   
  
I woke up and gasped for breath. I'd been having the same dream for the past few weeks. It was always the same, I'd be on top of a building in my town and there would be a lone man facing me, his face hidden by a hood on his black cloak. He would hold his hand out and there would be a flash of emerald from under the cloak. There would be a scream next to me and I'd turn to see a silhouette of a child on the floor, more than likely he or she is dead. I'd turn back and my entire body would go numb and I would drop off the side of the building and see my death rushing towards me. Just before I hit, I would wake up in a cold sweat, which was exactly what was happening now. I was in a small tent and Zidane was snoring a few inches away. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep now so I got up and walked outside. The night air was cool and refreshing against my skin, compared to the heat of the tent. The forest was a few hundred metres away and all was silent. I looked at my watch only to discover that it had stopped on 12:25, a few minutes after my parents had gone shopping. There was a small fire next to me, the light casting eerie shadows on the rocks beside me. I sat down and poked a twig at the dying embers of the fire, creating a crackling noise to accompany my breathing. I inspected my wound and flinched as I touched the torn flesh around the gaping hole. It had been a hell of a lot worse before I drunk the potion, I had to thank Vivi for that. I lay back and listened to the crackling of the fire (which thankfully, blocked out the sound of Zidane's snores) and drifted off into a mercifully dreamless sleep.  
  
The light that hit my face woke me up, not the clanking of Steiner's rusty armour as he jumped up and down, shouting at Zidane like a maniac. The sun had risen but almost completely blocked by the Mist. The fire was fully blazing so Vivi and Dagger were sat down warming themselves while Zidane and Steiner argued where we should go. He was shouting about taking Dagger back to the castle and Zidane said that we should head towards the cavern to the south.   
"Rusty, shut it, otherwise you'll attract every monster lurking for miles around" I said calmly "Let's just look at what's happening. Evil Forest is history so we can't go back that way, we're better off checking out that cavern that Zidane pointed out."   
"Thank you, at least somebody listens to what I say!" Zidane shot back at Steiner  
"When we get back to the castle..."  
"We're not going back to the castle otherwise we'll all get executed for kidnapping a member of the royal family." I returned  
"We'll be going to the castle, whatever happens, you insolent child."  
That was the final straw. I could stand any insult given out by the human race but `child` was going to far. It was a lucky thing Zidane interrupted me otherwise...well let's just say I couldn't be held responsible for my actions. In other words I would've kicked his ass into the next millennium.  
"Adelbert Steiner! State your sworn duty!"  
"To protect the princess at all costs... very well, I shall guard the princess with my life"  
If looks could kill, Zidane probably would've exploded at that moment from the cold glare Steiner was giving him. We were about to leave for the cavern when something small, furry and a pom-pom flew towards us. It was the moogle we saw in the forest, how it had escaped was anyone's guess. It started talking to Zidane and handed him a small flute. I wasn't listening. I was too busy looking at a group of small snake like creatures gathering a few metres away. They'd probably heard Steiner shouting. He'd easily outclass a foghorn. I slowly reached for my dagger, but before could do anything, two of them burst into flame. They're screams echoing into the valley around us. The others slithered quickly away into the mist. I turned to look beside me and saw Vivi with his hand outstretched towards the now completely charred bodies of the snakes.  
"Nice shot"  
"T-thanks"  
  
We walked up to the huge cavern entrance, ice strewn across our path. There was a chilling wind coming from deep within, chilling me right down to the soul. I crossed my arms over my chest, desperately trying to keep some body heat. I wasn't exactly dressed up for cold weather travelling, with a short sleeve shirt and jogging pants, who would be?   
"My grandpa said that this cavern can take travellers above the Mist." Vivi explained  
"We must thank your grandfather on escaping the mist!" Steiner said loudly.  
"Jeez, you're a bigger loudmouth than anybody I've ever met." I said exasperatedly  
"My grandpa passed away years ago..."  
"I'm terribly sorry, Master Vivi."  
"I-it's alright"  
Vivi walked into the cavern closely followed by everyone else. Dagger walked up to a small frozen flower and kneeled beside it. She was about to run it through her fingers when Steiner came running so fast that he almost knocked me flying.  
"Princess, don't touch anything!"  
"Can we go now, I'm freezing here!" Zidane asked pleadingly. We all carried on walking through complete silence. As it always says in the movies: It was quiet, too quiet. We carefully walked across a thin bridge of ice and started to move off.  
Then all hell broke loose.  
Two yellow blobs dropped from the ceiling. They were about the same size of a large dog, with massive eyes and bouncy bodies. Small goblins wearing what looked like a brown thermal coat and a small vial of yellow liquid rushed out from underneath a large slab of ice. To make things even worse, a strong wind was blowing at us from behind. I quickly grabbed the dagger from my makeshift sheath, Steiner drew his sword and with a quick movement, decapitated a goblin. It dropped to the floor, blood spurting from the stump that was once it's neck. I shoved my dagger straight through a flan's body and another jumped at me, smacking me across the face. Suddenly it had two daggers sticking out of its stomach as Zidane stabbed it repeatedly. After a surprisingly short amount of time the creatures lay strewn across the ice, blood freezing in small puddles. I'd only got a bruise across my forehead, Zidane was tending to a small cut on his arm and Steiner was harassing the princess. Vivi sat looking at the corpses in front of him but he soon got up. We all carried on, much to the protest of my aching legs. We came to a small room where, encased in ice, a small moogle sat. Vivi torched the ice and water dripped to the floor as the moogle slowly defrosted. Unfortunately, we also set the moogle on fire. It leaped around shouting various curses, generally making an ass of itself.  
"You bastards!"   
After that had been sorted, the trek continued...into a large blizzard. If I felt cold before it was nothing compared to this. The wind whipped my face and caused my entire body to go completely senseless. I didn't know where I was walking. Which is probably why I walked straight over a small ledge I landed heavily on the hard snowy ice. Shortly after something else landed on me with a soft thud. I couldn't hear or see anything. My arms stung, my eyes stung, everything stung. Then something a hell of a lot heavier landed on me and whoever or whatever had fallen on top of me first. I didn't know why but suddenly I was getting sleepy. I fought to keep my eyes open, but it was no use. I slowly drifted off into sleep.  
  
My skin felt raw as I slowly pushed the weight of my back. There was a jingling sound in the air as I saw what had fallen on me. Steiner and Vivi lay sleeping soundly and as I climbed the ledge, I saw Dagger and Zidane had also fallen asleep.   
"Great, just what we need." I thought frustrated. I kicked Zidane in the shins and to my surprise he woke up.   
"Ow! What was that for?!"  
"You fell asleep"  
"What?" Zidane looked around to see everyone else sleeping softly, snow slowly covering them all in a frosty blanket.  
"I'm going to check that jingling sound out, somebody else might be in here." he said calmly through chattering teeth.  
"Me too."  
Zidane got up and we trudged into the next section of the cave, where the blizzard seemed to be coming from. What faced us was a terrifying creature that could be described as a bigger, meaner Vivi with wings and a bell.  
"What the?" I asked as I whipped out my blade, noticing that Zidane had done the same.   
"You should be dead!" It hissed at us with utter hatred.  
"Sorry to disappoint you" Zidane said sarcastically  
It started ringing its bell and before we could do anything, a beast entirely composed of ice appeared from nowhere. I felt a sharp pain on my hand. I brought my hand in front of my face and saw an icicle had gone completely through it, blood dripping and staining the snow. I grabbed it and agonisingly pulled it clear from my hand. Luckily the ice had frozen the wound and it wasn't bleeding as much. I picked up the dagger from where I had dropped it and stabbed at the strange mage just as its hands were bathed in a blue light. It screeched furiously as I twisted the dagger and pushed further and further, cracking bones, putting all of my weight onto the blade. There was no blood yet I could tell it was dead when it stopped moving and lay still. I turned to look at Zidane who was furiously beating back everything the creature threw at him. Our eyes met and I knew exactly what to do. I ran around the back of it and jumped onto it's back, slashing madly at it's back. It was more occupied with me, giving Zidane a chance to ram his daggers deep into it's chest. Its scream pierced my heart as I felt a tingling feeling in my hands. I looked down at them only to see gouts of flame to erupt from them, melting straight through the icy back of the vast creature. I leapt down and watched it spasm uncontrollably until it dropped to the floor.  
"That was strange" I said looking in disbelief at my hands.  
  
Sunlight erupted over my face as I walked into the open air. Free of the mist and of cold, it felt like bliss. Everybody was closely behind me sighing with relief. We were on a small cliff overlooking a quiet little village. Dagger started to walk down the cliff but Zidane stopped her.  
"Wait, you can't go waltzing in there! People will be looking for you. You need a new name." He said thoughtfully. Steiner shoved Zidane so hard he almost flew over the edge of the cliff.  
"The princess does not need a new name. You will address her as princess from now on!" Steiner ordered. The two of them looked ready to kill each other. I looked at Vivi and he looked back at me with the same look. Dagger suddenly spoke up.  
"Zidane, what do you call this?" She said, inspecting his dagger in the sunlight.  
"That's a dagger. All blades of that length are called that. The larger ones are..."  
"Hmmm, a dagger?" she looked like she was thinking, her chocolate-brown eyes furrowed in deep thought. "I know! My new name shall be Dagger!"   
"Suits you" I said leaning against a large boulder. Zidane nodded as if to agree, as did Vivi.   
"You'll need to sound more casual, like me" Zidane boasted.  
"I shall try"  
"Whoa, no, try saying ok" I explained  
"Ok"  
"That sounds better" I replied, smiling slightly.  
"This is going to be hard..."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Hey people! Sorry this took so long. Schoolwork is starting to get to me. Nevertheless, I'll try and get the next chapter done ASAP. See ya! ^_^ 


	5. Chapter 5: The Black Mage Mystery

Disclaimer: Please leave me alone. Please. YAAAAAAAA!!!!  
  
Chapter 5- The Black Mage Mystery  
  
"Cool! A windmill!" Vivi cried in joy as we entered the village. I expected to see tumbleweed as it was so deserted. Suddenly everyone disappeared and I was plunged into complete darkness. The village reappeared but it was strange. Everyone was fuzzy like a bad T.V only ten times worse. It was like everything was underwater, buildings were warped almost beyond all recognition. Plus there were columns of mist about the size of grown men drifting everywhere. Then I looked more carefully, they were humans... A child here and there. Women and men looking strangely at me. But there was one child in particular that kept staring at me. He was about my age and I'll never forget the look in his eyes. Hope. My legs went numb and I dropped painlessly to the floor and shut my eyes...  
  
"Hey! Wake up!" I awoke to shouting and saw Zidane standing over me. I suddenly realised that I was lying on the floor. I stood up and felt my cheeks burning.  
"Hey. You ok?" His face was white with shock.  
"What happened?" I asked slowly.  
"Y-you went all rigid and dropped to the floor. Then you started twitching, like you were having a fit." Vivi said, his eyes wider than usual.  
"When you stopped moving and went all pale, we thought you were..." Zidane's voice trailed off. I knew exactly what he meant. This had only happened to me once before and that was when I was a small child. It was exactly the same this time only the people that floated around had been different. I looked at my small chain that hung loosely around my neck. It was a small golden eye emblazoned with ruby fire and with an emerald where it's pupil would be. I don't know how I'd got it. I just know that I've had it for most of my life.   
"Why did you want us to kidnap you Dagger?" Zidane asked, breaking the silence that hung over us.  
"Why do you think Zidane? If we hadn't have been stopped then..." I said  
" We would have got to Lindblum"  
"Precisely." Dagger finished.  
"But now we have to cross on foot. Border crossing eh?" Zidane said, rubbing his hand chin, thinking.  
"We'll get you there whatever it takes" I reassured Dagger  
"That's exactly what I was going to say," Zidane said all too quickly  
"Yeah, whatever" I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.  
"The princess will be coming back to the castle with me, vagrant!" Steiner shouted at Zidane. They started arguing and I took a look at my surroundings I seemed to be in some sort of inn. There were four beds, but five of us. Vivi had already taken one and was sat on another. I signalled to Dagger to take the third and left the two men bawling at each other. I lay down and closed my eyes, quickly falling asleep despite the noise.  
  
"Voice from the past, joining yours and mine..."  
  
I awoke to the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. It was better than anything even the mythical creature Siren could create. Zidane was still asleep but everyone else had gone. I took this opportunity to go and look around the town. I sneaked out and entered the main street. Children were playing around but almost all of them were shooting dark looks at Vivi, who was standing by the windmill. I walked into the nearest building, which just happened to be a weapon shop. I looked at some of the weapons lined on the wall. One of them caught my eye. It was a beautifully carved bow. Memories came flowing back as remembered my archery lessons. I walked over to the counter.  
"Is it ok if I try that bow before I buy it?" I asked.  
  
I stood outside with my new bow, a quiver full of arrows and a considerably lighter pocket. With that I walked over to Vivi and Zidane who were both leaning over a wall, listening intently. I heard a small "kweh" and I tried to determine where the sound was coming from.  
"Hey can you head back to the inn, we're gonna try and figure out how to cross the border"  
"Sure" Vivi and me replied in unison. I smiled and headed back to the inn.  
  
I sat down on the bed and lied backwards, listening to the soft trickle of the fountain in the centre of the room. A few seconds later Zidane and Dagger walked in talking.  
"Hi" I welcomed them in and we all sat down.  
"Hey. Where's Vivi?"  
"I dunno, he hasn't got back yet."  
"Dunno?" Dagger asked puzzled  
"Instead of "I don't know".  
"Oh"  
"Where's he got to?"  
"Forget Steiner, I'm more worried about Vivi" and with that we all went looking for him  
  
We all walked up to where we last saw Vivi, by the windmill. He wasn't there  
"I saw Vivi here, this is where we asked him to head back."  
"Is that crying?" Dagger said  
Dagger was right as the sound of someone sobbing drifted to us on the breeze. Zidane looked at the windmill at rubbed his chin in thought. I sighed and walked over to the small hole in the ground and looked down to see Vivi crying.  
"Vivi?"  
"Chris!"  
"How the hell did you get down there? Actually, never mind. I'm coming to get you."  
"Ok..."  
I stood up, swung around and saw Dagger and Zidane standing behind me, looks of concern for Vivi had crossed their faces.  
"Well? Let's go!" I said as I turned towards the windmill. We burst the door open, weapons drawn only to see nothing but the works of a windmill.  
"Great. How do we get down now?" I asked slumping against a broken beam.  
"This is too obvious!" Zidane rolled his eyes and lifted the huge metal dome up, uncovering a hole with a ladder leading down.  
"Gee. Smart." I said with fake excitement. Zidane went first, then Dagger then me bringing up the rear. The ladder led down into a cavern lit dimly by candles littered around. We followed a long dark tunnel until we came to a room with a large bright yellow chocobo standing in a pen preening itself. There was a small hut sat squat beside it. Zidane led us behind a barrel and I sneaked a look into the hut. There were two men who were overshadowing a small figure. They were prodding at it as it yelped painfully.  
"Why is it moving?" one man asked the other.  
"Dunno, should get it packed"  
They pushed the small figure into the open and Dagger had to hold both me and Zidane back as Vivi sprawled forward into the dirt. I had an arrow loaded at was about to let it fly as Dagger dragged us both backwards.   
"Did you see what was on the barrel?" She asked us  
"The Alexandrian coat of arms?" I replied, faking a look of puzzlement on my face.  
"How did you know that?"  
"Gut feeling" I said unconvincingly. She eyed me suspiciously but carried on.  
"I don't want you to cause any trouble." Dagger told us  
"Fine but if Vivi gets hurt I'll kill them." Zidane threatened. We sneaked up the corridor and past the hut and a storeroom until we came to a hissing machine, with what looked like steam hovering around the insides. Large pink and white balls were popping out and cruising along a conveyor belt. I noticed through the hissing, there was a small sniffling sound. A looked around for its source and came up to a large wooden box. I called the others over and Zidane put his ear to surface of the box. He grabbed the front of the box and kicked the latch off. The lid dropped off to reveal a curled up Vivi.  
"What the hell happened?" I asked  
"Who would pack you up in a box like that?" Dagger asked simultaneously.   
"I don't know. These guys came up to me and packed me up in that box." He gestured towards what remained of it after Zidane had wrecked it.  
"You've got to put up a fight, Vivi, make a scene!" Zidane advised him.  
"For example Vivi." I kicked Zidane in the shins as tried to reach for me. He hopped around in pain. "See? Now you have a chance to escape. If that doesn't work this will!" I elbowed Zidane in the stomach and pushed him into the remains of the box. He got up breathless and limped over.  
"Hey that hurt!" He whined and Dagger laughed at the sight of her kidnapper getting beaten up by a measly 14-year-old.  
  
We waltzed along the small tunnel wondering what all the machinery was about when we reached a sight that made Vivi and Dagger stop in their tracks. Hundreds of limp black mages were hanging from hooks. I couldn't tell whether they were alive, dead or worse. Another machine seemed to be packing them into boxes and loading them into barrels. I stood confused looking at the mounds of mage and clothing that were in front of us. They'd never truly looked alive to me in the game except when they were aware. I felt a sharp blow to the back of my head and a slumped into darkness.  
  
I awoke to see a foot, yes a foot. It was a simple, ordinary foot dressed in a light blue shoe. I looked up and saw Zidane and got up. Except I couldn't because I was squashed into a hard wooden surface with only a shoe to keep me company. Great.  
"Hey, are you ok down there?"  
"Fine, never been better" I replied grumpily.  
A sword slid straight past my face and slit my cheek just under my eye and carried on up to my nose until it withdrew. I clenched my teeth together and screamed. Apparently I'm well known for being able to scream louder and higher than anyone else I know. Even some girls can't beat me. So it's no wonder that Zidane covered his ears in pain. Blood was running down my cheek and into my mouth, spreading a salty copper taste into my tongue. I kicked out and heard a crack. Daylight erupted into the box and I climbed out, spitting the blood out onto the grass outside. I looked around and saw red. Steiner was standing with a look of shock on his face, his sword drawn with a small thin line of crimson on its edge. Without thinking I dived off the top of the box and kicked Steiner in the stomach. Much to my misery, my foot smacked into the armour and sent shooting pains right up my leg. I jumped around in fury clutching my aching foot, cursing out loud. Then, to make matters worse, a black object shot straight past my face and flew in front of us. I recognised it instantly as Black Waltz No.2. I ducked as a fireball singed the top of my head and I instantly grabbed the bow from my back and leapt to my feet, flipping an arrow into the string. It seemed to hiss at us in threatening voice as Steiner attempted to reason with it. A sudden flash and he was blasted backwards into Zidane, icicles pinging off his armour. I let an arrow fly and it hit the Black Waltz in his arm. He screamed and disappeared into thin air. I looked wildly around as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. There was a loud crack as I was jerked into the air and flew into one of the barrels, my body completely numb. Sparks flew everywhere and I could feel every hair on my head stick up in the air. The world shook as I was plunged into the strange world again. I suddenly felt all feelings of pain disappear from me. It was strange as if I didn't have a care in the world. I jumped to my feet and charged towards the fuzzy image that was the black waltz and I was thrown back into my world and straight into him. He looked at me in fear as my arrow plunged deep into his heart...if he even had one. He already had deep gouges and tears all over his body as he stood wavering for a second. A quiet hiss escaped from his throat as he dropped to the floor, a few words that I barely caught.  
"I-impossible, a-a-a-a spir..." he whispered as he dropped down dead.  
"What the..." I asked myself.  
"How the hell did you do that?" Zidane asked me as he ran over, almost tripping on the black waltz's corpse.  
"Do what?"  
"That!"  
"What?"  
"You appeared right out of thin air next to him!"  
"Did I?" I replied in a daze not, noticing anything, staring at the corpse in front of me as if expected it to get up and dance.  
"Why the hell are things getting weirder and weirder?"  
"What?"   
"Never mind." I sighed and walked slowly away from the corpse...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Like it? This took me AGES!!!! I'm dead sorry to anyone out there who hangs of every word I write (probably no-one). R+R please!  
  
From your resident lunatic, CJH.Y2K2! 


	6. Chapter 6: Aerial Antics

Disclaimer: (breaks down into tears of frustration) Why won't you leave me alone? WHY! I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!!! ARRRGGGHH!!! (jumps off the nearest cliff).  
  
Chapter 6 - Aerial Antics  
  
"You mean you've never been on an airship?"  
"Nope." I replied to Zidane with a sigh. The cargo ship loomed in front of me, the balloon upper swaying in the wind.  
"Hey Rusty, does this by any chance go to Lindblum?"  
"Y-yes it does!" Steiner claimed so unconvincingly he could've easily won an award for it...World's Most Dumbass Liar.  
"Really? That's handy."   
"The old man told me so it must be true!"  
"Then I'll go check if we can catch a ride." I said unable to contain the massive smile that wanted to burst from my face. I dully climbed the ladder, fully knowing exactly what I was about to see. I pushed open the door and saw the black mages going about their jobs as if they couldn't see me. I climbed up on deck and leaned over the side about to call to the gang down on the floor when there was a bright white flash. Two objects that could only be described as shooting stars shot past me and hit the wooden deck. I instantly recognised them as two very familiar teenagers as they crawled to their feet.  
"Well that's the last time I use a cheap cheats disc!" exclaimed Neil Day  
"And that's the last time I ever go to your house!" retaliated Bruce Thomson  
"Nice to see you too."   
"What the...?!" Neil shouted as he turned to see me  
"I'll explain that later." I said quickly as I leant over and shouted to Zidane that they could come up. I turned around and saw them gathering their jaws off the deck.  
"What?" I asked as I picked up the other objects that came down with them. I recognised Neil's weird sword and another longsword still in its sheath.  
"You might be needing these." I passed them to their respectful owners and started walking towards the ladder leading downwards.  
  
I'd just reached the ladder outside when the ship started moving.  
"Quick, move it!" I shouted. Steiner and Vivi were already up the ladder but Zidane and Dagger were still climbing. I grasped Dagger's hand and pulled her up the ladder and out of Zidane's reach. He looked disappointed as he climbed the rest of the way up, by which time we were already in the air. I looked down over the edge to see the huge valley filled with Mist. I saw the small out cropping of rock that was Morrid's home and my stomach churned at how high we were. The rest of the gang walked into the engine room and I heard Dagger come running back.  
"It's Vivi! Come quick!" I walked through the door and saw Vivi desperately trying to talk to the mages.   
"Poor Vivi..." I whispered to myself as Neil signalled to me to go up on deck. A few seconds later the wind was ruffling my hair and tickling my arms. I looked down at the pendant that hung across my chest and sighed as I prepared to explain to my two best friends what the hell we were doing here.  
"How did you get here?" I asked them.  
"One second we were playing on FF9, The next we were here."  
"Same here. Bruce? Where in hell did you get that sword from? Actually, on second thoughts, I don't want to know."  
Zidane and Steiner climbed out of the hatch still arguing.  
"Ha! We're all going back to the castle and you all are all going to be executed!"  
"Steiner, you seem pretty fixed on the idea that we're going back to Alexandria." I replied simply.  
"This ship will be there in about half an hour!"  
"Wrong. This ship's heading straight for Lindblum."  
"What makes you think that, child!"  
"That..." I said pointing towards Zidane. He'd reached the cockpit of the ship and was turning the ship so sharply we all slid along the deck and into the wall at the side and I almost went tumbling overboard and falling to grisly death on many sharp rocks.  
"I'll have your head for this!" Steiner seemed to be throwing a tantrum at Zidane for not returning to the castle. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark figure with large wings crouching on a small airship a small distance away. The other world appeared only for a few seconds but it was enough for me to see a massive shadow that seemed to cloak the mysterious figure. One thing was for sure, whatever it was, it was evil. It crouched low and took off and for fleeting moment our eyes seemed to connect.  
"Uh guys, I think we have company."  
  
Complete havoc struck the cargo ship.  
Black mages had formed a wall between Vivi and the menacing Black Waltz No.3 The mages started to charge fire spells and singe the black waltz's long black cloak but to no avail as he just blasted them clean off the ship. Long arcs of lightning cracked like a whip off the deck and off anything anywhere near the crazed waltz. Barrels burst open and for a moment it seemed to rain shards of wood and metal onto us. I stumbled to the edge only to see hundreds of black mages falling and twirling in mid-air, their lifeless arms bending into shapes that no human could possibly achieve. Vivi was just screaming in pure fury as he watched his fellow mages get annihilated. I blinked in shock. I could see everyone else was shocked by Vivi's outburst, most of all Zidane and Neil. The roaring of electricity halted and I surveyed the deck. There wasn't a single black mage left, all had been completely swept overboard. All that was left was the black waltz, his body crackling with electric. Half a dozen weapons slid out of their sheaths as the black waltz took a step forward. Vivi just completely lost it, he ran straight at the waltz like a madman. As he was running, a bright light erupted from deep within him, transforming him as his hat straightened, forced back my the force of the black magic that was emitting from him like an aura. Zidane turned to Dagger.  
"Dagger, it's up to you to steer the ship!" and with that we all charged forward and joined Vivi, who was blasting away with as many spells as he could think of, trails of fire, ice and lightning smashing into the waltz body. The beast was slowly being forced back by the brunt of our attack, but it didn't mean we weren't taking any hits. Zidane's left arm was burnt badly and Steiner had a large purple bruise forming on his right temple. I finally saw an opening that could end it all and sent an arrow flying straight at it. Amazingly, he brought the long rod he was carrying up to protect his chest and both the arrow and a fireball were deflected high into the air. I raised my arm so my hand was pointing at it's chest and concentrated hard, closing my eyes. The black waltz's chest burst into flame and bent over jerked sickeningly, it's arms twitching and flaying about. It stood up and flew into the wind and disappeared out of sight. Vivi sighed and another bright flash and he had reverted back to normal. He stood staring blankly at the black mage hat that hung loosely on a wooden stick. I turned and looked behind the ship and saw the small airship speeding up on us. In a few seconds, it would be on top of us.  
"Incoming!" I screamed as a bolt of lightning crack into my chest blasting me across the deck and over the edge. I saw Zidane lean over to grab me but he missed and I was sent tumbling through the mist...  
  
  
Exciting finish wasn't it? Sorry this chapter's a bit shorter but I'll make up for next time! R+R people please! 


	7. Chapter 7: When Spirits Call

Disclaimer: I own Me, Myself and I and nothing else, GOT THAT?  
  
Ha ha! Left ya on a cliff-hanger didn't I? (whisper) What do you mean "no!" Ah phooey. Lets just get on with it! Note: this signals a flashback. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
  
Chapter 7- When Spirits Call  
  
"Well here I am, about to die. Great." I muttered as I fell, massive sharp rocks speeding towards me. "I've no regrets. except I didn't live long enough!" I looked at the cargo ship as it sped towards the South Gate. "Oh well, I guess this it. Goodbye cruel world." I closed my eyes, waiting for the "squelch!" but it didn't come. Instead, I opened my eyes and saw myself in mid-air, eyes closed and about a metre away from the sharp rocks. "Ok, this definitely weird!" I said myself as I watched my own body hang in mid-air. "We have stopped time so you would not die." I spun around to see a middle- aged man dressed in a long emerald green cloak and wearing a pendent similar to mine. "What?" I replied, shocked "We have stopped time so you would not die." "What do you mean `we`? "This is what I mean." He swept his arm back countless of thousands of men, women and children. "Who are you?" "I am Vincent Heald, High Spiritseer" "What! You have the same surname as me!" "That's because I am your great-great-great-great-grandfather." "Well what do you mean by `High Spiritseer`?" "I am a spiritseer, they are spiritseers, you are a spiritseer. Surely you have noticed the signs? Seeing into the spirit realm? Actually traversing into the spirit realm?" "You mean when I fainted in Dali?" "Yes, that happens the first few times, but then you grow accustomed to being in the spirit realm." "How." "You inherited your powers from me." "But why are my parents normal?" "Because you are special." He placed his hands on my shoulders. At least, he tried to but they slipped straight through me. "The fates decided long ago that you should be the one to save the spiritseer race." "So what do I do?" "Nothing, we shall transport you back to the cargo ship." "Wait! What's this pendant mean?" My hands grasped the pendant that hung loosely around my neck. "It is a symbol of a High Spiritseer. My gift onto you. He placed his hands around the pendant, so they started glowing. "You should now be able to control your powers fully. When you save us, you will take my place as High Spiritseer. Remember, we will always be here to guide you." With that he swept his hand forward, swiftly brought it in front of his face and closed his eyes. "Thanks." I said, watching everything fade into darkness. "You are our only hope."  
  
I landed with a hard thump on the deck of the cargo ship as it smoothly moved along. Everyone's head turned to look at me in disbelief, Bruce and Neil's faces lit up from the pained expression they wearing before. "Chris!" "Alright!" "How the...!" "What the.!" "We thought.! A mass of jumbled words came flooding out as they rushed out of the steering room and towards me. Neil reached me first. "How did you survive, or even get back for that matter?" I recounted my story of how I met my ancestor, how I discovered what I really was and how I got back. As I talked I noticed that the emerald in my pendant was glowing brightly. After I finished I felt incredibly faint. "Almost dying has definitely tired me out!" With that I passed out.  
  
While I was asleep on the floor, my spirit wandered about the ship, looking over Lindblum next to Bruce, Neil, Zidane and Vivi. When we landed I lay down back inside my body and woke up. "Hey Chris, you just missed looking at this place from above! It's better than anything I've ever seen!" Neil reported excitedly. "No I didn't. I was standing right next to you. Your right though. It does look cool." I replied as I got up shaking the dust off my back. I looked at my surroundings for the first time and almost fell over again. The place was massive! You could easily fit a jumbo jet into that airship dock. We walked down a walkway furnished with a red carpet and met three guards, one of which was dressed in a different colour and they stopped us. "I am Princess Garnet Til Alexandros 17th. I am here to see Regent Cid." She stated "The princess would never use transport such as that or travel with such a company!" "Hey! Watch wise guy! That's royalty you're speaking to!" I threatened. "Yeah!" Bruce chipped in. "Well show us some proof!" The guard smirked. Then Dagger showed him her pendant and his eyes nearly popped out. "Is that the Falcon Claw? No. It's slightly different." "Look who's laughing now." Neil replied with a smile. Just then an old man dressed in important clothing appeared in the doorway behind the three dumbfounded guards. "What's all this then?" "Sir! These people have arrived on this airship saying that they want to see the regent and." "That will enough. You are dismissed, I'll handle this myself." "Sir! Yes sir! With that they ran back to their positions." "Good to see you princess!" And it's nice to see you uncle Artainia." "The regent has been expecting you." A look of puzzlement crossed Dagger's face as we followed the minister to the lift. It was very small and I don't know how we were all going to fit in. "Don't worry about me, I'll wander around town for a bit. Come and get me if you need me." "Me too." added Bruce "Me three!" finished Neil "See you guys later!" Zidane said as the lift shot up and out of sight. "Well? Shall we?" I swept my arm forward and walked down the long corridor towards the aircabs.  
  
Was that alright? I WANT FEEDBACK! Please. See ya! 


	8. Chapter 8: Hunter's Chance

Disclaimer: For god's sake look at the other chapters!  
  
Thanks to anyone who has reviewed so far and yes "s.queen", I will update even if nobody's reading this! I write purely for the fun of it! Anywho, let's rock!  
  
(All announcements will be in brackets, like this!)  
  
Chapter 8- Hunter's Chance  
  
"Yep, we're lost!" I stated despairingly  
"Great, now what do we do?" Neil replied grumpily  
"This place is huge!" Bruce exclaimed, brushing his fringe out of his eyes.  
We were in the central square of the business district and we were hopelessly lost. Getting here from the castle was easy but I'm sure we'd seen "Palom and Porom's" over sixteen times already and my patience was starting to wear thin.  
"Maybe we should've hung around the castle." Neil suggested.  
"Oh now he tells us!" Bruce said sarcastically  
"At least we're together. I think we should head back to the aircabs." I interrupted the argument briefly and left them arguing all the way to the station. We boarded the cab back to the castle and sat in the guestroom.  
"I don't know about you guys but I'm gonna take a nap. I'm exhausted!"  
"Alright. See ya later."  
"Don't kill each other."  
  
My sleep wasn't haunted by visions of my own death so when I woke up, I didn't know how long I'd slept. I opened my eyes to see everyone and climbed out of the bed. I yawned and walked over.  
"What will your reward be?" A guard asked me  
"Wha...?" I looked around the faces confused.  
"I entered you in the Festival of the Hunt!" Zidane said proudly.  
"That wasn't very kind of you, Zidane." The person in the corner perked up and walked forward, revealing herself to be Freya. "That's to people you've signed up without their permission."  
"Hey don't get me wrong. I'd love to take part! Add-on please." I said scratching the back of my neck. This usually meant one of three things.  
1. I was thinking  
2. I was nervous  
3. I was angry  
Fortunately I was only the first two today.  
  
I strode out of the aircab, bow in position, ready to let fly at any moment. I was starting in the industrial district with Freya, Neil was with Vivi in the business district and Bruce was in the theatre district with Zidane. I stood alone, as Freya didn't need the aircab to get around. I jogged up the stairway, dropping a trick sparrow in mid-flight.  
("Hunter Zidane is in the lead with 17 points!")  
I sighed, dropping silently into the spirit realm to sneak up behind a fang, diving out and swiftly putting an arrow through its head.  
("Hunter Bruce has taken the lead with 22 points!)"  
I whipped around and set a Mu alight with one outstretched hand when I felt and sharp slash across my back. Another trick sparrow flew other my head with crimson dripping off its talons and I put a hole it's stomach with a bolt spell.  
("Hunter Freya is leading with 36 points!")  
I winced under the pain emitting from my back and screamed as a fang jumped out of nowhere and grabbed my leg in its jaws. I flipped onto by back and placed the tip of my arrow on its nose. It seemed to know what was coming as the arrow spattered its brains onto the wall of a nearby building. But I was left in a bad state; my leg was bleeding heavily as tried to reach into my back pocket for the potion I had packed beforehand.  
("Hunter Vivi is leading with 37 points!")  
"Ah shit!" I shouted as I quickly withdrew my hand from my pocket, blood oozing from a cut in my hand. Falling over backwards had smashed the frail glass bottle and now I was bleeding from yet another wound. The place was overrun by monsters as I laid my head back on the stone floor and listened to the sound of my own heart pounding blood out of my body. I started to feel light headed and I sighed again as I a shadow fell over me. A familiar face was looking over me with the sounds of fighting in the background.  
"You look pretty bad." Neil admitted  
"I've never been this glad to see you!"  
"Keep still." He knelt down and placed his hands on my shredded leg and a cool soothing sensation spread within it. Before I knew it the light-headedness had gone and I was back on my feet.  
"Neil, I didn't know you knew white magic!"  
"Neither did I until a few minutes ago. If you think that's weird you should see Bruce!" He stood back to reveal a large amount of dead bodies and a lone person slashing his way through more creatures.  
"Hey you guys, thanks..."  
"Hey no problem!"  
"Now let's kick some monster ass!"  
("Amazing! It seems that Hunters Neil, Bruce and Chris have joined forces and are killing anything in sight!")  
("Unbelievable! Hunter Bruce has taken the lead with 316 points! An all time record!")  
  
We all stood in a line as Bruce received his reward: Master Hunter and lots of gil.  
"That was unbelievable Bruce!" I turned to face him as he was rolling up the scroll and slipping the money into his back pocket.  
"Yeah! How the hell did you do that?" Neil asked curiously.  
"Dunno. I just wanted to kick as many asses as possible." He replied with a grin.  
We all turned to the door to see a lone figure crawl in, his face horrifically disfigured and burnt. There places on his body where clothes had been ripped to reveal more burnt flesh.  
"Burmecia...under attack...king in danger...Alexandria." And with that he dropped to the floor and breathed his last breath.  
"Oh god...Mother?" Dagger gasped.  
"We haven't enough time to gather soldiers, we'll have to send in the air division." Regent Cid explained.  
"But if we do that we lose all eyes over Alexandria!" Minister Artainia protested  
"We have no choice, Burmecia are our allies!"  
"I'll have to go back to Burmecia." Freya said lifting her spear onto her back.  
"Hey, I'm coming too!" Zidane chipped in.  
"I-I'll come too." Vivi replied.  
"I'll go as well!" Dagger said  
"Dagger it's too dangerous!" Zidane exclaimed  
"But...!" Dagger protested  
"Dagger this is war! How did you feel when that soldier just died?"  
"Sad, in a way."  
"Princess, you do not want to experience war as I have." Steiner agreed.  
"I'll open the Dragon's Gate so you can travel to Gizamulke's Cavern. But we'll have to wait a while so let's enjoy this fine feast!" Regent Cid interrupted. I couldn't help but agree with the others but I felt that there was going to be a splitting of paths ahead as I turned to join them.  
  
  
  
  
See ya next time! 


	9. Chapter 9: Walking The Chosen Path

Disclaimer: Look at other chapters!

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Song of the Week: Robbie Williams - Angels

**__**

Chapter 9: Walking The Chosen Path

The biggest feast I had ever seen lay before my eyes. Usually I'd be in there like a shot but today I kept looking at the beef in front of me, wondering whether I'd go for a nap afterwards. A long nap. On the floor.

"What's the matter?" Neil asked

"Nothing." I said, swallowing my fear and taking a bite of the beef. It tasted nice and juicy. Then Vivi dropped to the floor, and Freya. Then Zidane. Then the regent and the minister (It looked strange watching an oglop sleep). I felt the taste of anaesthetic in my throat, bringing back bad memories. I suddenly felt an incredible urge to sleep but before that I had to say one thing.

"Dagger, you should…have added something sweet. The sleeping weed…gives the food a bitter taste." I struggled to keep my eyes open as Neil and Bruce looked on in shock. Finally I dropped into sleep.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I lay looking at the middle-aged man with the syringe and watching him prepare the anaesthetic. My dad's face came into vision as I felt a sharp pain in my hand. He reassured me and as my body became completely numb he went in and out of focus and eventually, disappeared. The next thing I remember I was laying in another bed linked to a bleeping machine, a blip sounding every few moments. My throat tasted of anaesthetic as I saw my dad as I was wheeled down a long corridor.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I groaned as I climbed to my feet I looked around the room to notice three empty seats. Dagger, Steiner and Bruce had gone, probably half way to the South Gate. 

"That girl's got some tricks up her sleeve." Freya stated looking on with a distant gaze.

"Sleeping weed" Was all Zidane could say as he stared numbly at the spot where Dagger was stood last. 

"All we can do is go to Burmecia and hope they didn't go that way." I said, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible. 

"You're right, let's go." Freya said moving swiftly towards the door. I shook my head and looked at Neil. He replied with a simple nod as we walked out the door towards the Dragon Gate.

I dispatched the last Ladybug with a simple whack of the bow over it's head and turned to see the others still contending with a guard dragon. Freya leapt up into the air and disappeared into the mist, only to come down a few moments later driving the spear straight through the beast, a thin trickle of black blood creeping from it's mouth. I knelt down to rest a little as Freya withdrew the blade, completely clean, from it's chest with the crack of a few ribs. It dropped instantly and made a gurgling sound. I got back up and followed behind. It had been like this for the past ½ hour, fighting the odd group of monsters. I was growing more and more tired with every spell that I cast. I reached into the back pocket once again and withdrew two small bottles with a dull orange liquid within. I tossed one over two Neil and I drained the contents of the bottle. It was like eating powdered caffeine and I was quickly feeling a lot better.

"You'd never guess it was this far to walk!" Neil exclaimed at me.

"What?" Zidane asked curiously.

"Never mind." I stated dully. I was starting to feel as if I'd never get home alive, that I was going to live the rest of my life in a foreign world. Suddenly there was a rustle in the reeds behind me and I swung around to look. I slipped in the marshy muck and performed a perfect face plant into the mud. I lifted my face out of the slime and saw an innocent looking frog bounce along in between the reeds, on my head and around the legs of Freya, who looked at it as if it was something scummy stuck to her shoe.

Then a massive pink and white object came flying out of the patch of reeds and flattened me. I struggled under the massive weight of whatever it was above me, whatever air I had in my lungs escaping within an instant. Just as it started, it suddenly leapt of my back bounded after the frog that Freya had picked up and was dangling by it's legs. It struggled to break free of her killer grip but as it finally dropped to freedom the creature slapped it's long quivering tongue around the frog and swallowed it whole.

"Jeez. It's worse than you are Chris." Neil said, smiling.

"No shit, sherlock." I replied, returning the grin.

"Thank you for frog!" The fat blob thanked us.

"No problem, Quina" I added. Then I realised the stupid mistake I'd made. "D'oh!"

"How did you know Quina's name?" Vivi asked. I looked at Neil and he returned the expression. I sighed deeply and started to explain.

"Basically, Neil, Bruce and myself are not of this world. We come from a world called Earth, which is a hell of a lot more technologically advanced than Gaia. In our world, we have devices called Playstation. With these devices we can see into your future by actually _being_ you. For that reason, we know more about you than you know about yourself." They stared at me gobsmacked.

"Prove it." Zidane asked. "If you know about our future, then tell us where Dagger is."

"That's easy! Dagger is currently travelling towards South Gate with Steiner and Bruce."

"Really?" 

"Would I lie? Trust me, we know things about you that you'll be finding out within about a month… and five years after that."

"Well we've got to go after Dagger!"

"No we haven't. If we tell you every little thing that's going to happen we'll screw up the course of time. We don't want to go doing that!" Neil explained.

"That's right, we have to carry on to Burmecia."

"But.."

"Look, Dagger will be ok, I swear upon my life."

"Alright then, let's go."

"Hey! You forget me?" Quina said bouncing up and down

"Oh yeah you can come with us, if you want." I said as we started to walk off 

"Chris, what about Quale?" Neil whispered

"Quina, Quale says that you should travel the world tasting lots of different yummy-yummies."

"He say that?"

"Yep."

"Ok! Me come along!" Quina bounded after us

A scene of destruction lay before us as we walked up to Gizamulke's Cavern. It looked like there was a struggle and Freya seemed to go nuts at the sight of this. She screamed at the prone bodies, as if she expected them to get up and stand to attention. After a bit more shouting, she ran deep into the cavern. The others sighed and ran straight after her and I stood for a few seconds, wondering whether I would ever get out of here alive.

Sorry for the wait but this took a lot outta me. I hopefully shouldn't take this long with the next chapter. See ya! 


	10. Chapter 10: Trailing Towards Burmecia

Disclaimer: Look at the other chapters!

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Song Of The Week: Goldfinger - Superman

Happy New Year to all! I know I haven't updated in long time, due to a crippling writer's block, and to my Dad flattening the hard drive. Luckily I had a back-up. This floppy disk is worth its weight in gold! Anyway, we left our intrepid heroes, Chris & Neil, entering Gizamulke's Cavern, while Bruce was facing the daunting thought of being captured by Alexandria. I've got to warn you I've forgotten most of the FF9 script and I'll make up some of the speech myself (Prepares a blockade to stop enraged FF9 fans from killing the author). Now we carry on!

**__**

Chapter 10: Trailing Towards Burmecia

It was dank and cool inside the cavern and after scouting the room we were in we discovered why it was so silent. The place was battle scarred, great chunks taken out of the solid rock. Freya looked shattered as she saw another body of a Burmecian soldier. It suddenly dawned on me what danger we were all about to go through, and why we'd had to leave Dagger behind. I couldn't explain it, but everything felt so much daunting when you were put through it yourself. Heck, I hadn't had a shower in several days and I was starting to stink. There was still blood on my favourite shirt and tears and slashes in places. I still had the scar that Steiner had given me and it would probably stay there for the rest of my life, despite the cure magic.

We all jumped when the soldier lifted his hand, revealing a small decorated bell. 

"P-protect Burmecia…" he croaked and his eyes rolled back and he died.

__

"I'm sure he doesn't usually say that." I thought to myself as Zidane took the bell and walked over to the door, ringing it enigmatically. The bell shattered into dust, to Zidane's surprise, and the door rolled open to reveal the sound of a fire, followed by a cry of pain. Everyone drew their weapons in unison as we all the charged into the next room. I looked to the side of me and immediately wished I hadn't, a limitless drop surrounded us, apart from the small stone bridge we were stood on. I looked up and saw two small figures, dressed as jesters, staring back at us. 

"Things just get better and better." Neil said sarcastically.

"Kill them we shall!"

"We shall kill them! Following that, two black mages jumped down from the bridge that they were standing on. Vivi sent a gout of fire streaming towards them, setting one of them alight. It ran around in circles and received an arrow right between the eyes. Its comrade seemed to completely ignore this as it whacked Quina over the head. She/he retaliated by shoving the fork straight through the enemy and yanking it out. The mage stood for a few seconds before being impaled to the nearest wall by Freya's spear, which had been thrown with immense strength. Zorn and Thorn looked at each other and fled quickly. We carried on into the main part of the room and saw two more black mages patrolling the room. There were also other assorted monsters in the room, such as a Lamia, several skeletons and few bats.

"Nuts." Was all I could say. The Lamia hissed as it slithered closer and closer, the black mages hands glowed menacingly, and the skeletons limped over in a rickety sort of way. I whipped an arrow out of the quiver and launched it towards a skeleton as the rest of the group charged. After watching The Fellowship Of The Ring, I'd loved bows, as they acted much like a medieval gun would. Plus you can be much more versatile, as you can stab with arrows as well as fire them. When my parents had sent me to after school clubs, one of the things I'd chosen was also Archery, so I knew how to use a bow, and I was pretty accurate. The arrow shattered the skull of the skeleton and he wandered around aimlessly searching for his head. Zidane and Freya had teamed up against the Lamia, Neil had taken on the mages, Vivi was blasting the bats into oblivion and Quina and me were dismembering the skeletons. I hit another skeleton with a bolt of lightning and watched it fall to pieces and saw another one disappear into Quina's mouth. There was a loud scream of pain as I turned to see the Lamia falling to the ground with numerous stab wounds and gouges. I looked around the room and noticed how much destruction we'd caused in a few minutes. Freya walked by the body of one of the black mages and picked up its bell.

After a long time of treasure hunting and fighting we came to a room with a huge bell in the centre. A lone moogle was flitting desperately around the bell. Vivi handed over the kupo nut and Moguta blew the bell over and took the kupo nut. They both charged off into a small room for which we had to sacrifice another bell to enter. We went in and saw a hole in the ceiling from which light flooded in through. 

"There's no point, in carrying on yet, if we want to get to Burmecia in one piece." Freya suggested as we stopped for a rest.

"Especially with a huge fight ahead of us." I said glumly

"And what state are we going to find Burmecia in when we get there?" Zidane asked.

"It's going to be in complete ruin, the dead will litter the streets but the many will have escaped, including the king." Neil replied 

"We've gotta stop saying these things. We'll end up paranoid in the end. We'll be seeing death everywhere." I told Neil. Freya looked devastated at the reply of Zidane's question. I couldn't blame her, I'd go on rampage if I saw my hometown wrecked.

I don't know how long we'd sat there, but I know that I'd fallen asleep, and that a terrifying nightmare had taken hold of my mind…

**__**

Dream 2: The Dying Town

I looked around in horror at the ruin that was once the town of Chorley. Flames still flickered in the distance and a huge tower lay before me, where the town centre used to be. The strangest thing was that the tower seemed to be alive, breathing in the foulest of ways. The sky was blazing with fiery rocks that were still falling. I didn't know whether anyone had survived, I didn't what had caused this but I knew that I would personally strangle the person who was responsible for the destruction of my hometown. There was a cold laughter behind me and I turned to see a man in an ink black cloak, his emerald eyes seemed to pierce my very soul, all the hairs on the back of my neck were on end and a feeling of impending doom as he stared at me. He had ancient markings on his face, as if he was a part of a tribe of sorts.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"You did this?!"

"This is only the start, I'm going to make your life a living hell." He smirked almost evilly.

"Why! What have I ever done to you!"

"It is not what you have done, it is what your race could do. That is if I hadn't have almost entirely wiped you out." It suddenly dawned on me who this man was, and what he had done.

"The Spiritseers…"

"Yes, I wiped your race off the face of this planet. All that remains is you."

"Me?"

"There is another, but she is no threat to me."

"Somebody else is out there?" 

"Ah yes, but enough talking. I tire rapidly of your existence." It was all adding up in my head, and that could only mean one thing…

"No…"

"Goodbye." I froze as he pulled out a crossbow and put a bolt through my heart. I suddenly felt colder than ever before. I heard a thud behind me as the man started grinning like a madman. I turned around to see my own body lying in a puddle of blood, a short metal rod sticking out of my chest, my eyes staring blankly back at me 

I awoke screaming, making everyone in the room jump in alarm. It seemed that others had started to doze off themselves.

"What the hell is wrong with you!"

"N-nothing." I noticed that my hands were shaking worse than ever before. Seeing myself die for a second time can never be a good thing. Then I remembered.

"I'll be back in a sec." I slipped into the spirit realm and looked around.

"Looking for me?" I almost jumped out of my skin as he jumped down from the ceiling.

"Yeah, I need to know something."

"Fire away."

"Am I the last spiritseer alive?" A pained look flashed across Vincent's face. 

"No, there are little of us left, but a large amount of them reside in your hometown."

"Really?"

"Would I lie?" It sounded so strange to have my own words resounded out of someone else's mouth. I smiled.

"It's good to know I'm not alone, but I just had a dream…"

"I know, I was watching you. I looked more like a nightmare."

"I dreamt that my town was in ruins and that this man killed me."

"Who was it?"

"I don't know, but he claimed that he was the one that wiped out our race."

"I could only be one person."

"Who?" I could tell that he was in extreme distress over remembering him.

"Draco, I should know, he's my brother."

"If he's a spiritseer then why did he wipe us out?"

"That's the thing, he wasn't a spiritseer. He was jealous of our entire race, especially me. I always got the attention of my parents. They were always so proud and he was left in the shadow. Of course this was in a time when we were just truly coming into existence, but I'll tell you of that later." He looked over my shoulder. "Because by the looks of it, your friends are ready to go." I turned around to see that everyone was rising to their feet. 

"See ya later." I said as I turned to go

"I'll always be right next to you." I slipped back into the material realm.

"Just in time, we about to…" Neil said to me

"I know." With that we proceeded (After receiving the Holy Bell off Moguta).

The trickling of water in the massive pool was driving me nuts, Freya was talking to an injured soldier and Neil and me were waiting patiently for Gizamulke.

"I never thought I'd say this but what's taking him so long?" Neil said jokingly, but we both had our eyes focused on the hole/tube that he's supposed to come out of. To tell the truth, I was definitely not looking forward to this. 

"Look out! Master Gizamulke's being controlled by those clowns!"

"Now." Just as the words escaped from my mouth, the huge snake-like creature that was Gizamulke slid into the pool of water that was by our side.

"Get back!" Neil shouted to the others. It rose like a mighty creature from the deep (which, of course, it was), baring it's long fangs to the small group that also bared their weapons. It seemed to take a deep breath and Zidane's eyes widened.

"Scatter!" We all dived aside as a blast of water erupted from the surface we were standing on. The battle had begun…

I climbed onto a ledge and fired off an arrow into Gizamulke's chest area. It hit and without a chance to move I was smashed against the wall. I stood up and raised my hand, opened my mouth to recite a thunder spell, only for air to come rushing out. I tried desperately to speak again as it picked my up in its jaws and threw me across the cavern and into the wall on the far side. The blast knocked the air from my lungs as I hit the surface of the water, quickly sinking beneath the ripples. My lungs ached for oxygen as I kicked off the floor with tired legs and burst from the water and paddled over to the side. A shrill cry pierced the air as Freya cut a huge gouge across the chest of Gizamulke and Zidane helped me out of the water. Gizamulke seemed to notice Zidane caught off guard and flapped its tail/flipper in his direction. I grabbed an arrow and released it into the flipper, much to Gizamulke's pain. I slid out of the water and shook myself off. Zidane passed me a small bottle with a deep blue gunk in it. I slipped it out and rubbed it on my throat, suddenly being able to speak again.

"Thanks, Zidane!" I shouted and raised a hand to blast a bolt of lightning at Gizamulke, hitting him square in the chest. Gizamulke reared up and a spear impaled his neck to the wall. A loud hiss emitted from his mouth and he dropped to water with a mighty crash. I dropped to my knees in exhaustion. I was definitely not cut out for war. Neil walked over.

"I hope Bruce is alright."

"I hope so too" I got up and walked to the door, deeply carved into the wall. Freya rushed past me as we all continued on the trek to Burmecia… 


	11. Chapter 11: The City Of Eternal Rain

Disclaimer: Isn't it obvious?

****

Song of the week: Friendship – Tenacious D

Thanks for the excellent response to last chapter, you might want to read Big Little Brother 2003.

**__**

Chapter 11: The City Of Eternal Rain

"Brr!" I shivered, water dripping from my nose, landing at my feet with a steady plop. Not that I could hear it, with the downpour around me. I looked up, blinking in the rain, to see a large city ahead. 

"Burmecia" I muttered to myself "Land of eternal rain. Why couldn't it be land of eternal sun?"

"Damn right." Neil said as he walked beside me. The others didn't seem to be bothered as much, rain rolling of Vivi's hat. Freya looked like she was deep in thought. I remembered that she hadn't been here in years. The front gates loomed in front of us and saw a look of horror cross her face as she saw the ruins of her once proud homeland. Carts laden with fruit were overturned in the cobbled streets, burned bodies lay strewn everywhere and, in the distance, a thin column of smoke was rising from the huge palace. _"Amazing how a fire can still burn in this weather."_ I thought to myself, drawing an arrow from my dwindling quiver and sliding it up to the bowstring. I took a moment to think and I placed a hand on the arrowhead, concentrating hard. When I drew my hand away it left an icy glint on it. I took into the bow and fired it at an apple on the overturned cart. It hit and it instantly froze. _"That could be useful…" _I thought. I suddenly realised that I was _really_ thirsty, I hadn't had a drink in several hours and I started to wonder where I could get one from. I looked at the puddles on the floor but most of them were filled with blood. Then I smacked my forehead in stupidity, the rain was falling around me and I'd completely forgotten about it! I pointed my head upwards and opened my mouth, quickly banishing my thirst. I looked down and we walked on, weapons at the ready for any sign of movement. We carefully treaded our way up the cobbled street and I looked behind a cart and saw a small coin with a crab carved into it. I picked it up and followed on behind the rest.

The statue was absolutely huge, carved into the palace in front of us. Freya looked up and dived into the air and came to rest right at the very top. Zidane jumped his way up, Quina, Vivi and Neil went the long way around. I slipped into the spirit realm and climbed my way up, walking straight into the courtyard blindly. Queen Brahne was standing in the rain, with a man that looked like he was in his mid-twenties. He was dressed in a long silk shirt, leaving a gap between the shirt and pants…if you could call them pants. He seemed to wear eye shadow and his silver hair was draped with purple feathers. Then I noticed Beatrix, sword gleaming in its sheath, probably had ended thousands of lives prematurely. I saw them speak, but seeming I was in the spirit realm, everything was in mute. I saw a Burmecian soldier run up to Beatrix, spear drawn, shouting out loud. I stood in between him and Beatrix, facing her and took a deep breath. I appeared out of thin air and took a fighting stance.

"If you want him, you'll have to get through me."

"I admire your spirit, child. But do you even know who I am?" she brushed her deep brown hair back.

"General Beatrix of the Alexandrian army, well known for being one of the best soldiers on Gaia. I bet you could easily kill me in one swipe right now."

"I don't kill civilians. Especially when they're unarmed."

"Oh well, looks like my plan won't work, I'll just have to walk away." I turned around, clearly showing the bow on my back. I waited and felt the air shift as the sword came swooping towards my unprotected neck. The soldier looked at me in horror, as well as Zidane and Freya, who were hiding behind a statue a small distance away. I winked and shifted back into the spiritual realm, turning around to see the look of confusion on Beatrix's face, as well as Brahne's. Kuja didn't look surprised. I popped back and waved a finger at her.

"Now that was pretty dishonourable, attacking while my back's turned." I said, drawing an arrow and giving it an ice attribute. The battle began. I released the arrow but Beatrix dodged and countered with a swipe from her sword, curving in a long deadly arc before colliding with my bow, brought up in a defensive position. I kicked Beatrix in the shins and whacked my bow into her face. A small trickle of blood ran from her nose and to my surprise, she smiled…and shoved her sword clean through me.

"Don't push your luck, child." She drew the blade from my body, blood dripping into the puddles of water. My body slowly started shutting down. Everything went in slow motion. Freya and Zidane jumped out of cover and furiously started attacking. Quina, Vivi and Neil ran in looking horrified. I dropped to my knees and knelt there, breathing air into my ruined lungs. Then I fell face down in a puddle of my own blood, rain pattering on my broken body. In my mind, I was screaming as my thoughts slowly started to fade away…

__

"Light…"

"Go back, it isn't your time yet."

"Who are you?"

"I'm you."

"…the hell?"

"I'm your subconscious."

"Oh…"

"You're screwed aren't you?"

"Am I dead?"

"Yes…and no."

"What?"

"Take a look." I looked and saw my body, lying face down in a pool of blood, Neil knelt next to me, screaming my ear. A faint ray of light started to rise from me, which suddenly burst into a white flame engulfing me. 

"You can't die. Not yet."

"What's happening to me?"

"You're going through an experience that you refer to as Trance."

"Me? In Trance? No way!"

"It's true."

"Weird. Is it always like this?"

"No, it's just you can't control it yet. In time, you will be able to." My body was now growing more and more bright.

"Can I go back?"

"Sure." There was a flash and everything went black.

I opened my eyes and looked up. Kuja was standing over me, he bent down and took my arm. I couldn't move or feel anything, I could barely move my head. He dragged me along, over the cobbles as I looked helplessly at my fallen friends. Everything hurt. I was in agony, but I couldn't scream. I was lifted onto a fluffy surface as long silvery wings spread out beneath me. Kuja crouched next to me as we were borne into the air on the silver dragon. I stared at him, and spoke one word.

"W…why?"

"Because you could be very useful to me." He answered in a soft voice. He raised his hand and passed it over my head and everything faded away…

Is this the end for Chris? What has Kuja got in store for him? Find out next time! Oh yeah, sorry for the delay!

CJH.Y2K2 


	12. Chapter 12: The Parallel World Theory

Disclaimer: Forget it…

Song Of The Week: Jeff Wayne – The Spirit of Man (The War Of The Worlds Game Remix)

Hi! The last we saw of our heroes Neil was heading for Cleyra, Bruce was heading for Treno and ultimately, Alexandria. Meanwhile, Chris had been taken prisoner by Kuja and was also heading for Treno. What's going to happen? Find out now! As I explained before, I can't remember the exact script so I'm making a lot of the talking up!

**__**

Chapter 12: The Parallel World Theory

Darkness…

I awoke to a night sky, the breeze running through my hair. I shook my head to shake my sleepiness away and I looked around. I was still on the back of the silver dragon, Kuja lay just ahead, near it's neck. It looked like he was sleeping. I took this to my advantage and checked out my wound. I still found it pretty hard to breathe properly as I looked at the long slice that had once reached deep into me. It looked clean, as if a lot of cure magic had been cast on it. I looked over the edge and noticed the land wasn't far below us. Maybe I could jump? But then I noticed how fast we were travelling and realised if I jumped, my remains would be spread over a five mile radius. Suddenly, the dragon growled softly and nudged Kuja with its neck. He yawned sleepily and woke up, glanced at me and stood up. I looked amazed at his sense of balance as he turned around to look at me.

"So, why'd you pick me?" I asked, getting straight to the point. "You could've picked anyone of us, why me?"

"Because you're abilities, they're not natural. Not even my black mages can do that." He said in voice that made me want to strangle him.

"Jeez, I'm flattered." 

"Who are you?"

"Your worst nightmare."

"Nice to see you have a sense of humour."

__

"I ain't joking." I thought vindictively

We were sat on a balcony in the King auction house, listening to the auctioneer call out the bids on a lump of dark matter. Kuja's eyes perked up suddenly as I followed his gaze down to a familiar pair. Dagger was looking back at Kuja while Bruce had his arms folded impatiently. I looked back at Kuja and he was slowly preparing to stand up. A mound of thoughts ran through my head but one shone through brighter than sunlight. _"RUN!"_ I leapt over the safety bar and fell to the floor, landing swiftly on my feet and charging out of the hall. Bruce and Dagger followed me as Kuja looked angrily over the rail. I stood outside to catch my breath as Bruce walked over. 

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought you went the other way?"

"It's a long story." Just then, Steiner showed up.

"What is that rouge doing here!" 

"I'm not in the mood for your ways, Steiner." Suddenly I didn't feel so good, my vision started to blur and I dropped unconscious.

I woke up and saw the face of and a small man, with a really big nose

"Looks like you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"My chest hurts, but other than that, fine. What happened to me?"

"You had some major internal bleeding, whoever had cured you hadn't done a good job of it."

"Neil. Where are the others?"

"They're waiting outside. I just have one question."

"What?"

"You were shouting out for you're family in your sleep, and some pretty weird place names that I've never heard of. Where are you from?" I explained to him my origins and he looked at me as if he wasn't surprised. In fact, he looked quite excited. 

"I knew it! A colleague of mine once told me of a theory he had. He called it the Parallel World Theory. He said that every move we make, every decision we make, every thing that's ever happened, a different world is made for it. It's like, say, if I was you were never born, there's a world out there where you never existed and anything you've ever done never happened. He explained that there must be a way to traverse between them. However you got here must be the opening to the other parallel worlds. You're living proof that you can traverse the parallel universe!

"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be _living _proof."

"Oh, you'll have to thank princess Garnet for that, she performed the cure magic that saved your life." I stood up and shook my had to try and put my thoughts straight. I walked outside and saw Bruce sat on the doorstep, Dagger pacing backwards and forwards, Marcus and Steiner shouting at each other, as per usual. 

"Hey people! Let's get our asses to Alexandria!" Everyone jumped in surprise

"Now you're talking!" Bruce said as he jumped to his feet. We all returned to Doctor Tot's room and he explained the way through Gargan Roo.

"I never there was a place like this in Alexandria Castle." Dagger proclaimed as the gargant pulled up outside the entrance. The mist hung around us, giving the place a cold feel. We walked through a small corridor into a large cavern with a huge stairway leading upwards. We walked forwards only for a large metal fence to slide up in front of us.

"You! What trap have you laid for us this time!" Steiner shouted, pointing at Marcus.

"I didn't do anything." He said calmly. Then another fence slid up behind us and two familiar voices perked up.

"They fell for it!"

"Fell for it, they did"

"I'm getting real sick of them showing up wherever I go!" I said frustrated as we were hustled off by Alexandrian soldiers.

I looked through the bars in my prison, Steiner and Marcus in a large cage dangling in the middle of the room. I turned around and looked at Bruce, who was sat against the damp stone wall.

"Now what do we do?" He asked. I thought quickly and remembered that in the spirit world, the landscape was warped beyond all recognition. I clamped my hand on Bruce's shoulder. 

"Hold on tight Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-byes!" I said to Bruce.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He shot back. I just hoped my mad plan worked. I concentrated as I switched realms on bringing Bruce with me. I watched as the bars in front of us twisted and retorted leaving a large gap in them.

"What did you just do?" Bruce asked.

"Welcome to the spirit realm! Population 20 billion and rising!" 

"So this is where you keep disappearing to?"

"Just stick close to me." We climbed through the gap and walked along the long pathway to a ladder.

"What about them two?"

"Leave them, they'll sort themselves out." I replied truthfully. We climbed up the ladder, which was actually a difficult task, seeming the rungs were all over the place. We finally made it to the top and carried on our way. Our path led us through many halls and walkways until we came to Brahne's room. I walked over to the candlestick and we watched as the fireplace opened. We traced our way down until we reached the underground chapel. There we saw Zorn & Thorn extracting the eidolons from Dagger. We sat by and watched, completely invisible to their eyes. Minutes felt like years until Zidane and the rest of the group burst in through the doors. 

"Right, now let's go over to Dagger. We can leave them to it. We'll need to save our energy for the battles ahead." Bruce nodded, even he knew what happened next. We walked over to Dagger and grabbed Bruce's shoulder again bringing us both out of the spirit realm. I knelt down beside her and checked for a pulse on her neck while Bruce drew his claymore and knelt beside me. Zidane ran up behind me and looked in shock at Dagger. Neil stood next to me.

"What happened to you? I thought you were gonna die back there. I tried my best to sort you out but I couldn't do much."

"Hey, it's the thought that counts. All right peeps, she's alive so we better get moving otherwise we're gonna have the entire Alexandrian army down our throats."

"That hurt. Swords would be hard to swallow." Quina agreed

"Guys, we're gonna have one long fight ahead of us. It's best if we lead, seeming we know the fastest way outta here." I said to Bruce and Neil, they both nodded in approval. Zidane scooped Dagger up in his arms.

"Let's bust this joint!" and with that, we all ran out of the room.

"If it's ok with you guys, I think we better take a rest." Zidane said as we reached Brahne's room. I closed the fireplace up and turned around.

"Sure." Zidane laid Dagger onto the sofa and knelt down beside her. "It's all my fault. If I'd just listened to her, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"It's not your fault Zidane, Dagger went of her own free will, she wasn't forced or anything." Bruce consoled Zidane. I watched as Beatrix entered the room. 

"Back again?" She looked around the group and lastly at me. "You remember how badly I beat you last time?" She laughed softly and Bruce stepped forwards brandishing his sword.

"I reckon you're not all you're cracked up to be." He said

"Really? You must have been the first say that." She pulled her longsword from its sheath. Everyone took a step forwards but Bruce raised his free hand. "They'll also be you're last words!" She charged forwards and Bruce raised the claymore into a defensive position, sword clanging loudly of sword. He countered with another slash followed swiftly with a thrust at her waist. She quickly side-stepped and threw another slash at him, her blade crackling with lightning. This hit found it's mark and Bruce was sent reeling, blood running freely down his arm.

__

"Unless he pulls off something drastic, he'll end up dead!" I thought anxiously. Bruce clenched his teeth as Beatrix shoulder rammed him into a wall. As he hit the wall, a bright light burst from him as a pair of black scaly wings erupted from his back. His body suddenly was covered in a black shiny armour made out of an unknown metal. A closer look revealed that it wasn't metal but scales that now protected him from harm. His wings swept back, ripping the curtains from the nearby window, sunlight bursting into the room. The claymore started glowing as it absorbed the sunlight and he jumped into the air and swung the charged sword in a deadly arc. Beatrix's eyes (or should I say, eye) widened as the beam of sub-nuclear energy hit her raised sword, reflecting off and hitting him square in the chest blasting him into the wall. He slid down and crumpled onto the floor, de-morphing into his normal self.

"Get out of Alexandria, and never return." She said, brushing the hair out of her face.

"General Beatrix! What is your duty!" I shouted

"To protect the royal family of course!"

"Then you should know who is lying on that sofa behind me!" Zidane shouted, face full of rage. Her expression changed immediately.

"So the queen did mean to kill her." 

"Nonsense! The queen would never…" Steiner spluttered

"Steiner, it's time you stopped being so foolish and started facing the truth!"

"But, but."

"But nothing Rusty! Face it! Your queen is trying to take over the world and if we don't move it, we'll all be dead before you can say `But!` again!" I nigh on screamed at Steiner. He stood agape staring at me.

"Beatrix, execute them." Brahne ordered as she `waddled` in with Zorn & Thorn.

"Sort the princess out Beatrix, I'll handle this." I said as she nodded _"I've been looking forward to this for a long time." _I bowed "Your majesty, I'm afraid to report that you are the biggest pile crap I've seen in my entire life and that you should lay off the lard." I smiled and turned around to join the rest off the gang. "Now that I've got that out of my system, shall we leave?" Dagger groaned as she awoke.

"Where am I?" 

"No time to explain, we gotta run our legs off!"

We charged into Gargan Roo and jumped into the carriage and we started going. Suddenly the gargant sped up, faster and faster. I looked behind us to see a large snake like creature following us.

"Shit! We've got company!" I shouted, launching a fire arrow at it.

"We've just passed Treno!" Zidane replied. The tunnel started to get more and more wild with sharp turns everywhere.

"Hold on tight!" Bruce called as we flew into a blinding light…

Jeez! That was a long chappie! That's 3 pages in size 10 times new roman! Altogether 2,174 words! 173 lines! 9,679 letters! Great merciful christ! 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, what happens next? (Oh that's a tough one!) 


	13. Chapter 13: Atmos Attack!

Disclaimer: Nope, nothing is owned apart from me, Bruce and Neil.

Thanks for the response from the last chapter and the constructive criticism from a certain author. Here's the next one! The gang has been reunited and has now been blasted on a gargant all the way to Pinnacle Rocks! What dangers await them now?

**__**

Chapter 13: Atmos Attack!

"Why does this always happen to me?" I whined as I plucked myself out of a bush

"Where are we?" Bruce asked, nursing his arm.

"Pinnacle Rocks." Neil answered, looking around the surrounding trees. I looked over the edge of the branch we were sat on.

"Hmm, I wonder where the others are?" I thought out loud

"Well they're not here." Bruce said as Neil healed his arm. 

"We'll have to meet them in Lindblum." I said, brushing myself off. "There's no way we can just sit here waiting for them. 

~~~

With that we all stood up and started trekking our way through the dense vines. What must have been less than 30 minutes felt like several millennia. I yawned as we cleared the suffocating atmosphere of the trees. 

"Right, there's Lindblum, won't take us too long to get there." I announced to the others.

"Finally! A civilisation which isn't trying to kill us!" Bruce shouted as he started running.

"Chris, you should know what happens next." Neil said worryingly

"Relax. As long as we keep our wits about us and don't drop our guard, we'll be ok." I reassured him. I started running after Bruce, the cool wind in my face. Closer and closer the silhouette of Lindblum got to us. As it did so, my fears seemed to heighten , getting worse and worse. I shook my head, almost as if I was trying to convince myself that this was a good idea. I just hoped I wasn't wrong…

~~~

We walked in through the front gate, looking around. It looked like the madness hadn't started yet.

"We better get ready." I said slowly as I checked how many arrows I had left. Twenty-six left, enough to kill twenty-six soldiers if I was lucky. Suddenly, an explosion rocked everything. I looked up to see the Red Rose soaring overhead, cannonballs were crashing into buildings everywhere. Then the black mages teleported down and I knew then that if we didn't get to the castle, we were screwed. I launched a thunder arrow at the nearest target as Bruce dived into combat , his claymore glinting in the moonlight. Neil was contending with an Alexandrian soldier, who was attacking him furiously after putting a new air hole in her cheek. I felt a heavy object collide with the back of my head and I turned to see a black mage raising it's staff to strike again as I punched a fire arrow into it's face, point blank. A platoon of Lindblum soldiers charged into the invading Alexandrians and complete chaos ensued. Blasts of magic were flying everywhere, streaks of fire lighting up the darkness, a few of them from my own hand. Another blast shook the land as I shoved my dagger into the face of a soldier, hearing the crack as it went straight through her skull. I saw a group of innocent civilians blown high into the air from another blast.

"Guys! We're gonna have to get to the castle!" I shouted over the sound of battle. Bruce was already in the aircab station and I shot the mage that was bothering Neil. Inside the station was pretty calm, as we ran onto the aircab just as a troop of black mages teleported in.

"Does anyone know how to drive one of these?!" Neil exclaimed.

"Neil, hit that lever there. I'll cover us." I said with as much calm as I could muster. War was one of the worst situations you could possibly start to panic in. I leant out of the window and shot a mage charging up a fire spell.

"Got it! Hold on tight!" Neil shouted as the aircab jerked into movement. I used my vantage point to snipe as many mages as I could, otherwise we'd be blown to pieces. Fire blazed past us as the mages below tried to blow us out of the sky, but I desperately fired off into crowds of them, hoping I'd hit at least one of them. The Alexandrian army was wreaking havoc upon the citizens of Lindblum, completely overwhelming the defence. The aircab stopped suddenly at the station just outside the castle. If the fighting in the Business District was heated, then I hadn't seen anything. The path was seething with mages, soldiers (on both sides), medics, the dead and the dying as we weaved our way through the conflict. We charged in through the castle doors to see a few dead guards. We made our way to the lift and I tapped the button to go to the top floor. The lift reached to top to reveal some dead mages that we stepped over. Suddenly, all the windows shattered and Neil's eyes widened. I looked out the windows and saw a huge mouth. 

"Hold on to something!" I shouted as I was sucked towards the window. I slid myself sideways into the wall, Neil grabbed a statue and Bruce hid under the window. The mage corpses got sucked out the window as we sat there for the duration. I heard terrified screams as anyone outside got sucked into the abyss that was Atmos. Suddenly the wall crumbled, and we started to slide towards the edge. I jumped and grabbed Neil and Bruce, sending us into the spirit realm. Everything went silent, except for us three panting.

"Looks like Lindblum is in trouble." said Vincent.

"Oh, hi." I said.

"Who is he?" Neil and Bruce asked simultaneously.

"Remember I told you about my ancestors?"

"Yeah."

"He's Vincent."

"Oh…" With a flash, Atmos disappeared and We slipped back into the material realm. I walked down the corridor and stopped in front of the two doors. The two elite guards placed their lances in the way.

"Hi, I was with the princess Garnet when she last visited."

"I don't remember seeing you." He eyed me suspiciously.

"Well that's because I wasn't entirely visible." With that I disappeared into the spirit realm. "Now to get through the door…" I stood for a few seconds and then placed my hands on the door. To my surprise, I shifted straight through it and was then standing on a platform with the regent on a chair in front of me. I reappeared only to have four lances pointed at my neck. The regent turned around and recognised me.

"Stand down men. He's one of us." He said, gwokking annoyingly. The lances immediately retreated and I bowed deeply.

"Regent Cid, I'm here to warn you that Princess Garnet is on her way."

"I'm glad she's safe but I'm afraid we're going to have to give in to Brahne's demands." I nodded and looked at the sheer mayhem that had been caused. Soldiers dead everywhere. I would take a long time for Lindblum to recover from the attack. I walked to the door, and opened it, signalling to Bruce and Neil to walk this way. I turned around again and sighed as the Red Rose made a victory pass over the defeated city.

~~~

I must have fallen asleep but when I awoke, an Alexandrian soldier kicked me out of the room. I walked down the hallway and back into Cid's chamber. Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, Bruce and Neil were already waiting for me.

"Sorry, overslept." I said, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment. Bruce rolled his eyes as I joined the group.

"Brahne is probably going overseas, we're going to follow her by going through an old excavation site." Zidane briefed me and I waved my hand dismissing it, seeming I already knew all of it. 

"We'd better get moving then, if we want to get there before that lard ass." I said plainly. With that we set off…

Please review! Constructive criticism preferred please and flames will be used to torch my coursework. 


	14. Chapter 14: Homesick Singers

Disclaimer: Don't own anything…

**__**

Song Of The Week: Simple & Clean – Utada Hikaru (again!)

Hey peeps! I noticed my mistake in Chapter 7 (how could I be so stupid!) and I've quickly rectified it! Anyway, after my mum banned me for a week (cleanliness? Bah!) I'm back with the new chapter!

**__**

Chapter 16: The Lost Village Of Summoners

"Nice." I said plainly as we walked into Maiden Sari, it was a wreck to put things nicely. The sky was quickly darkening and it wasn't long before I found myself by the Eidolon Wall. The sweet, heady scent of incense made me sway, getting more and more dizzy. The next minute I saw a quick white blur that brought me back to my senses. I peeked around, wondering what it was when suddenly…

__

"Hello." I jumped out of my skin as I turned to see a gleaming white dragon, black marks lined its wings and it's eyes were a brilliant blue. It cocked its head slightly, staring at me. _"What?" _It said, without moving it mouth.

"I've never seen a dragon before." I said

__

"You have."

"Well I don't remember it."

__

"I've been with you ever since you received your pendant. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Kirjava, your guardian creature."

"You're female?"

__

"Yep. Guardians are always the opposite gender to the seer they guard."

"Weird."

__

"I've never really understood that myself."

"Neither have I." A voice came from behind me. I turned around and saw Vincent. His outline was heavily blurred but I could still tell he had an expression of happiness. "I was waiting for this."

"Waiting for what?"

"For you to meet your guardian. Every spiritseer has a guardian creature, Alisa guards me with her life.

"Alisa?" I said confused.

"I'll show you." He placed a hand on his pendant and a shriek came from within. A blur shot from the gem buried within and became a soaring eagle, which quickly landed a changed to a wildcat.

"Wow." I said, amazed.

__

"Long time no see Alisa." Kirjava said, in her strange mind-talk.

__

"How's things?" Alisa asked, morphing into a robin and jumping onto Vincent's shoulder. Kirjava formed into a dove and as she did so, a felt a slight twinge in my heart. It didn't hurt, it spread a warm feeling across my body.

"Chris, be careful. Kirjava can protect you from harm if you are in trouble, but your spirits are one. Anything she feels, you feel too."

"If she dies…"

"Then you die too." He said, a serious look on his face. I worried about this for a few seconds but I felt a slight peck on my shoulder as Kirjava nipped me with her beak.

__

"Relax! I can take of myself, as well as you!" She reassured me. I turned to Vincent, but he had disappeared like dust into the wind.

"Wow!" Neil exclaimed, stroking Kirjava with his little finger, after she'd morphed into a white mouse.

"I guess having a guardian would be pretty handy." Bruce admitted

__

"That doesn't mean you don't have one!" Kirjava perked up, morphing back into a dove.

"What?" Zidane said, jumping from his seat. The sun had set and we were sat around the table in the small house, waiting for Eiko to serve supper.

__

"A guardian is that voice at the back of your head, the one that makes you feel guilty after doing something wrong, the one that keeps you warm at night, without you knowing about it." She explained

"So even if we can't see it, its still there?" Dagger asked

__

"Yep!" She said. Just then, Eiko walked in with a pot of steaming stew and a smoked fish on a plate.

"Yummy." I said, talking about the fish. I wasn't sure about the stew, since I didn't know whether she'd put the oglop in. Neil seemed to share the same fears I did, but Bruce tried a bit of the stew and I watched his reaction as he swallowed and looked up thoughtfully.

"That seemed a bit bitter." He said.

"I put an oglop in there." I laughed as I watched everybody's eyes widen as they looked at the stew in horror.

The next day, we took a trip to the Lifa tree and as we crossed the plains, it loomed ahead. As we closed in on it, it started to get mistier and colder. Kirjava morphed into a phoenix to keep everyone warm as we got closer and closer. Finally, we made it to the roots.

"Right! Let's go!" Zidane shouted, walking forward. Suddenly, the air in front of him shimmered and he was thrown backwards. He tried again and again but each time he was thrown back.

"This is the eidolon we failed to summon." Eiko said, walking forward. She raised her hands and emitted some of the weirdest mumbo-jumbo I'd ever heard in my entire life. The air shimmered once again and came together to form a small ruby, that consequently dropped into Eiko's hand. I swept my hands forward as Kirjava flitted ahead as a hummingbird.

"Shall we?"

After the most gut-churning, heart-stopping, vertigo-inducing walk I'd ever been on as we passed over the misty drop on the roots of the Lifa tree, we reached into the trunk and a small lift. Naturally, curious Zidane tapped his foot on it and jumped as it started going down. It came back up shortly and we all went down with it. Another walk across more roots, mist sweeping up the dead looking trunk. It wasn't long before we reached another lift and were zooming down that one. Kirjava, sensing a foreboding terror, transformed into a falcon, claws bared, ready for action. Neil also knew what was coming next, as the powder that protected u from being swept away passed silently over our heads.

"Incoming!" Eiko shouted. A large dragon was sweeping towards us at high speed. I fired an arrow towards it but it shot past and hit the fast moving wall instead. It scraped past and Bruce shoved his sword upward into its stomach. But that didn't stop it. It flailed and turned around for another pass. Zidane grinned and jumped onto its back, just as a fire spell hit it. He brought his daggers downward into the dragon's neck, cleaving its head off completely in a shower of black blood. He quickly turned and dived back for the platform, just grasping the edge and slipping towards an untimely death down below. Everyone jumped towards the edge but failed to grab his hand. He screamed out as he started falling.

"Kirjava!" I shouted.

__

"Got it!" She said, morphing into her sleek dragon form. I jumped onto her back as we dived in one fluid movement downward after Zidane. The wind swept my face but we kept going, determined to save Zidane. We were closing on him, but were also closing on the surface of the bright green water below.

"Zidane! Grab my hand!" I cried as I stretched my hand towards him.

__

"Any time now would do!" Kirjava shouted in my mind. I looked down and calculated how long we had. 9 seconds…

"Come on!"

8 seconds…

"I'm trying!"

7 seconds…

"Don't go dying on me!"

6 seconds…

"Just a bit closer!"

5…

"Oh my god!"

4…

"You're too far away!"

3…

"I can't reach!"

2…

"We're not gonna make it!"

1… I closed my eyes as the liquid surface below got closer and closer and prayed for a miracle…

How's that for a close ending! Will they make it? Is this the end? Will I ever stop giving out cliff-hangers like candy? Find out next time!


	15. Chapter 15: The Hidden Village

Disclaimer: Don't bother asking…

**__**

Song Of The Week: Utada Hikaru – Simple & Clean (This is one kick ass song, as well as the remix! I have all of them!)

Hey peeps! Time for another chapter! If you're having a hard time looking for FF music, then contact me on Yahoo Messenger and I'll send you the files! I've got a pretty large collection! Here's a list:

FF9:

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Dark Messenger

Necron's Theme

Melodies Of Life

You're Not Alone

FF8:

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Eyes On Me

The Man With The Machine Gun (Laguna's Battle Theme)

Ride On (Ragnarok Theme)

The Extreme (The final, final, final, final battle against "True Ultemicia")

The Landing

FF10:

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Fight! (Zanarkand Blitzball Theme)

FF7:

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One-Winged Angel

Don't mind me, I'm feeling generous! 

**__**

Chapter 15: The Hidden Village

"Ahhh! Humans!" A black mage shouted, obviously in distress as the small group of mages in front of us scattered. I shook my head as I saw the almost comical sight of mages tripping over each other in an attempt to get away. It'd been a long walk from Condie Petie, and then there was the forest to get through. 

"Wait!" Neil shouted as he ran after them. I watched as the group I was in quickly chased after the mages and soon I was left completely alone.

"Hey!" I said quickly realising this. I started to wander around aimlessly, taking in the surroundings. The light glimmered through the densely packed leaves, casting mottled shadows over everything. A small stream trickled softly through the middle of the village, I could even spot a few shimmering fish shooting upstream, glinting in the sunlight. "This place is so peaceful." I said to myself. Suddenly, my peace was shattered by a large banging noise. I swung around to see Quina banging on the door to a small hut. I walked along and looked at the large whitish creature smacking on the door until finally it opened and she charged in (accompanied by shouts of "No! You can't eat it!"). I carried on my walk, kicking the golden, brown leaves aside. I spotted Bruce hanging around in a shop, buying a potion of a bewildered black mage, who was trying to remember how to serve a customer. Another few paces and I noticed Neil running around the roof of another hut, searching for items. Dagger was sat explaining about the rest of us with Zidane. That left one person who I hadn't seen yet, Vivi, and I knew exactly where he was. I wandered into a clearing into a meadow. In front of me, were Vivi, two black mages and a graveyard. I walked forward to one of the graves and knelt beside it, bowing my head as a sign of respect. I stood up and faced the mages.

"H-hi Chris." Vivi greeted me, a sad look in his eyes. I figured they'd just explained to him about "stopping". I felt really sorry for him, since everyone was scared of death. I stood with them a while.

"Do people `stop` in your world?" Vivi asked. I bowed my head, this was a very sensitive subject for me. My grandma had died two years earlier. I was there when the ambulance took her away.

__

A warm sunny day: 16th September 1999

My bike's wheels clicked away as I rode care-free through town. School was over for the day and I was looking forward to spending some time with my only remaining grandparent. I was closing in on the road to her small bungalow. I turned the last corner and saw the distinctive blue flashing lights as an ambulance was sat outside the semi-detached bungalow. I figured that occupants of the house next door had had an accident. Nothing strange about that. But as I got closer, the fear inside me was rising and my heart twinged as I saw the door open, my aunt sat on the ambulance's step, peering inside at it's occupants. She noticed me and walked over and explained what had happened. Fifteen minutes before hand, she hand phoned my grandma, suddenly there was a thump and the phone went dead. She'd immediately phoned an ambulance and drove over to find her on the floor, next to the phone unconscious. It wasn't long until the ambulance had arrived. She told me to go home and explain what had happened to my parents…

Another sunny warm day (very unusual): 27th November 1999

I walked out of the school door and up to the bike shed, noticing my dad was there, waiting for me. He was wearing black trousers, black jacket and a terrible expression. I knew what was coming as we walked silently towards the car. I put the bike in the boot and sat in the passenger seat. We resorted to one word sentences as we both knew what each other was saying.

"So…"

"Yes…" Silence the rest of the way. I got home and got out of the car and just collapsed into tears. I couldn't believe it. I refused to believe it! I just wanted to scream and scream until the pain went away. But it was no use. The truth was there, staring blankly at me like a demon from the deepest pits of hell, screaming shrilly into the night…

"Yes. Everybody does at one time or another. But you can't live your life wondering when it's going to end. It's what you do with the time given to you that really matters. If you die, you die. So be it. No-one can control these times, like no-one can tame the wild beast of Nature. Everyone is scared of death. No-one can claim that when death stared them in the face, that they weren't truly terrified. There's no shame in it." I poured my heart out and the more I said, the lighter my spirit felt.

"You're right. What's the point of living in fear? When I `stop`, I want to be able to stare death in the face, and truthfully say I have lived my life to the full." A black mage agreed, raising his staff in agreement.

"Thanks for that Chris. It's made me feel a lot better." Vivi admitted his eyes lighting up in happiness, a change for eyes usually drowned in sorrow.

"Anything to help." I said, my spirits raised. "Now I don't about you guys but talking about death sure makes me tired! I need a nap!"

~~~

The next morning was uneventful. We packed up our stuff and set of, after a mage informed us of a silver dragon spotted soaring over the Lifa Tree. Our next stop. The journey to Condie Petie was also uneventful, which was a bit unusual. Before long we were at the familiar village of Condie Petie. Then I remembered what happened next, there was no way I was getting married to anyone!

"We're going to have to get married to get past this bit." I said to the others.

"You're kidding me! Please tell me that you're kidding me!" Bruce said pleadingly.

"Nope." Neil said, watching Bruce's expression very carefully. 

"Dagger?" Zidane asked.

"Okay." She replied blankly as Zidane's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Hello? Marriage!" He said back

"Well we need to if we're going to get past here!" Dagger put it quite simply.

~~~

I slipped into the spirit realm and just strolled past the guards. Obviously I had to take Bruce and Neil with me, as there was no-one for them to get married to. We slipped back into the material realm and waited a few seconds for the rest to join us and then we carried on to see a small writhing purple and yellow object hanging of a branch. I then noticed it to be a small girl and a small moogle flitting around her in desperation. A few seconds later it had disappeared.

"Great. Abandoned by my own moogle." Eiko muttered angrily as Quina bounced past.

"Hmmm, moogle look tasty." She said as she gave chase to the fleeing moogle.

"No! Don't let it eat her!" Eiko cried, desperately struggling to get free of the branch when suddenly, Quina jumped after Mog, causing a tremor. The branch snapped and Eiko screamed as she fell. Then I noticed her flight path and simply said…

"Oh shit." Eiko fell on top of my head, shoving into the dust. I mumbled various obscenities as my head was buried in the dust. I could faintly hear Neil laughing his head off, Zidane chuckling and Eiko thanking me for breaking her fall.

"No problem!" I mumbled waving my hands in the air. "Now can someone help me pull my head out the ground!?"

~~~

After another tiring walk, we were soon on our way down a small ledge. I looked around as suddenly the ground started rumbling and a large green giant trundled towards us.

"Oh jeez." I said as I pulled an arrow from my quiver. Bruce drew his claymore, grinning from ear to ear. 

"What are you so happy about?" Neil asked the demented Bruce.

"I haven't killed anything in the past 2 hours!" He replied simply as he charged into battle, cleaving he monster's hand off. With it's other hand it batted him aside into a rock wall as it received an arrow in its chest. It roared and brought its foot down onto me as I flicked in and out of the spirit realm all around it, confusing it. Just missed barely, I jumped onto his leg and climbed onto his back. Suddenly, the sky darkened and I jumped off its back. A large wolf like creature jumped down in front of Eiko, she stroked its fur and it nodded, as if she was talking to it. A large head rose out of the ground, closely followed by a large stone fist, blasting the giant high into the air until it came back down with a crunch. It got up and shook it's head, and screamed as a large staff fell from the sky and fell through its skull, travelling through it's body until it hit the floor. Then a thunderbolt followed it down, electrifying its already dead body, frying it to a crisp. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air as it was left standing impaled. The staff suddenly disappeared and the giant fell with a mighty crash. We all stood dumbfounded staring at the monster's blackened body, smoke still rising from its silent body.

"I didn't know you could summon eidolons!?" Eiko and Dagger said simultaneously. I had no idea that summons were so deadly. They didn't look that deadly in the game. We carried on our journey to Maiden Sari as the sun slowly fell towards the distant horizon… 


	16. Chapter 16: The Lost Village Of Summoner...

Disclaimer: Don't own anything…

**__**

Song Of The Week: Simple & Clean – Utada Hikaru (again!)

Hey peeps! I noticed my mistake in Chapter 7 (how could I be so stupid!) and I've quickly rectified it! Anyway, after my mum banned me for a week (cleanliness? Bah!) I'm back with the new chapter!

**__**

Chapter 16: The Lost Village Of Summoners

"Nice." I said plainly as we walked into Maiden Sari, it was a wreck to put things nicely. The sky was quickly darkening and it wasn't long before I found myself by the Eidolon Wall. The sweet, heady scent of incense made me sway, getting more and more dizzy. The next minute I saw a quick white blur that brought me back to my senses. I peeked around, wondering what it was when suddenly…

__

"Hello." I jumped out of my skin as I turned to see a gleaming white dragon, black marks lined its wings and it's eyes were a brilliant blue. It cocked its head slightly, staring at me. _"What?" _It said, without moving it mouth.

"I've never seen a dragon before." I said

__

"You have."

"Well I don't remember it."

__

"I've been with you ever since you received your pendant. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Kirjava, your guardian creature."

"You're female?"

__

"Yep. Guardians are always the opposite gender to the seer they guard."

"Weird."

__

"I've never really understood that myself."

"Neither have I." A voice came from behind me. I turned around and saw Vincent. His outline was heavily blurred but I could still tell he had an expression of happiness. "I was waiting for this."

"Waiting for what?"

"For you to meet your guardian. Every spiritseer has a guardian creature, Alisa guards me with her life.

"Alisa?" I said confused.

"I'll show you." He placed a hand on his pendant and a shriek came from within. A blur shot from the gem buried within and became a soaring eagle, which quickly landed a changed to a wildcat.

"Wow." I said, amazed.

__

"Long time no see Alisa." Kirjava said, in her strange mind-talk. 

__

"How's things?" Alisa asked, morphing into a robin and jumping onto Vincent's shoulder. Kirjava formed into a dove and as she did so, a felt a slight twinge in my heart. It didn't hurt, it spread a warm feeling across my body.

"Chris, be careful. Kirjava can protect you from harm if you are in trouble, but your spirits are one. Anything she feels, you feel too."

"If she dies…"

"Then you die too." He said, a serious look on his face. I worried about this for a few seconds but I felt a slight peck on my shoulder as Kirjava nipped me with her beak.

__

"Relax! I can take of myself, as well as you!" She reassured me. I turned to Vincent, but he had disappeared like dust into the wind.

~~~

****

"Wow!" Neil exclaimed, stroking Kirjava with his little finger, after she'd morphed into a white mouse. 

"I guess having a guardian would be pretty handy." Bruce admitted

__

"That doesn't mean you don't have one!" Kirjava perked up, morphing back into a dove.

"What?" Zidane said, jumping from his seat. The sun had set and we were sat around the table in the small house, waiting for Eiko to serve supper. 

__

"A guardian is that voice at the back of your head, the one that makes you feel guilty after doing something wrong, the one that keeps you warm at night, without you knowing about it." She explained

"So even if we can't see it, its still there?" Dagger asked

__

"Yep!" She said. Just then, Eiko walked in with a pot of steaming stew and a smoked fish on a plate.

"Yummy." I said, talking about the fish. I wasn't sure about the stew, since I didn't know whether she'd put the oglop in. Neil seemed to share the same fears I did, but Bruce tried a bit of the stew and I watched his reaction as he swallowed and looked up thoughtfully.

"That seemed a bit bitter." He said.

"I put an oglop in there." I laughed as I watched everybody's eyes widen as they looked at the stew in horror.

~~~

The next day, we took a trip to the Lifa tree and as we crossed the plains, it loomed ahead. As we closed in on it, it started to get mistier and colder. Kirjava morphed into a phoenix to keep everyone warm as we got closer and closer. Finally, we made it to the roots.

"Right! Let's go!" Zidane shouted, walking forward. Suddenly, the air in front of him shimmered and he was thrown backwards. He tried again and again but each time he was thrown back.

"This is the eidolon we failed to summon." Eiko said, walking forward. She raised her hands and emitted some of the weirdest mumbo-jumbo I'd ever heard in my entire life. The air shimmered once again and came together to form a small ruby, that consequently dropped into Eiko's hand. I swept my hands forward as Kirjava flitted ahead as a hummingbird. 

"Shall we?"

~~~

After the most gut-churning, heart-stopping, vertigo-inducing walk I'd ever been on as we passed over the misty drop on the roots of the Lifa tree, we reached into the trunk and a small lift. Naturally, curious Zidane tapped his foot on it and jumped as it started going down. It came back up shortly and we all went down with it. Another walk across more roots, mist sweeping up the dead looking trunk. It wasn't long before we reached another lift and were zooming down that one. Kirjava, sensing a foreboding terror, transformed into a falcon, claws bared, ready for action. Neil also knew what was coming next, as the powder that protected u from being swept away passed silently over our heads.

"Incoming!" Eiko shouted. A large dragon was sweeping towards us at high speed. I fired an arrow towards it but it shot past and hit the fast moving wall instead. It scraped past and Bruce shoved his sword upward into its stomach. But that didn't stop it. It flailed and turned around for another pass. Zidane grinned and jumped onto its back, just as a fire spell hit it. He brought his daggers downward into the dragon's neck, cleaving its head off completely in a shower of black blood. He quickly turned and dived back for the platform, just grasping the edge and slipping towards an untimely death down below. Everyone jumped towards the edge but failed to grab his hand. He screamed out as he started falling.

"Kirjava!" I shouted.

__

"Got it!" She said, morphing into her sleek dragon form. I jumped onto her back as we dived in one fluid movement downward after Zidane. The wind swept my face but we kept going, determined to save Zidane. We were closing on him, but were also closing on the surface of the bright green water below.

"Zidane! Grab my hand!" I cried as I stretched my hand towards him.

__

"Any time now would do!" Kirjava shouted in my mind. I looked down and calculated how long we had. 9 seconds…

"Come on!"

8 seconds…

"I'm trying!"

7 seconds…

"Don't go dying on me!"

6 seconds…

"Just a bit closer!"

5…

"Oh my god!"

4…

"You're too far away!"

3…

"I can't reach!"

2…

"We're not gonna make it!"

1… I closed my eyes as the liquid surface below got closer and closer and prayed for a miracle…

How's that for a close ending! Will they make it? Is this the end? Will I ever stop giving out cliff-hangers like candy? Find out next time!


	17. Chapter 17: The Flaming Amarant

Disclaimer: Don't own a damn thing.

**__**

Song Of The Week: Deadstar – Muse

URGENT NOTICE FOR S.QUEEN: My yahoo messenger seriously fucked up when you sent me that message and now you aren't showing up on my friends list! I'll need you to re-send me that message.

Other than that, here's the next chapter!

**__**

Chapter 17: The Flaming Amarant

"This is gonna hurt! Hold on!" Kirjava's voice rung through my head as we hurtled towards the acid green water. I made one last grab for Zidane and grasped his hand firmly.

"Kirjava! Get us the hell outta here!"

__

"Easier said than done!" She shouted back. I shut my eyes as we hit the surface of the water. As we went below, I could feel myself losing consciousness, but I still kept hold of Zidane's hand in a death grip. I tried desperately to make a switch into the spirit realm, where hopefully this water wouldn't exist, but I couldn't. I started going into shock as the massive amount of spirits in the pool slowly drained the life out of me. Suddenly, I was lit up in a white glow, Kirjava looked at me, spurred on by new strength, and morphed into a dolphin. She nudged us onto her back and with failing strength, broke the surface and changed back into dragon, with Zidane and myself laid across her back. I just looked up blankly as we slowly rose up to the place where the lift stopped.

"Zidane…Never…do…that…again…" I told him through heavy breathing. With a heavy sigh Kirjava just set us down on the floor and with a blur, went to rest in my pendant. I just lay there. Zidane was unconscious as I wasn't far off, constantly twitching. Being dropped into the dregs of thousands of lost souls had screwed up my mind, so much I could barely think straight. With a heavy sigh I shut my eyes and lost myself in the depths of my mind…

~~~

Someone was shaking me.

"Leave me in peace." I said, just wanting to lie there forever. Wait a second. That wasn't what I wanted at all! I opened my eyes and shot upright.

"Yahhhhhhh!" I screamed and shivered at the same time. With a snap Kirjava, as a phoenix, soared out of my pendant and perched beside me, drying my soaked body.

"You two had us scared for a minute there!" Bruce said, wiping his brow. Dagger was sat by Zidane, casting a life spell to wake him up.

"What the hell were you thinking!" Neil exclaimed.

"Hey, I did what I needed to. Dimwit over there would still be lying in an eternal rest at the bottom of that pool down there if I hadn't have gone after him." I said, drying slowly.

__

"I never want to go through that again!" Kirjava said 

"Same here." I said. I stood up and surveyed the surroundings. The top area of the trunk where we came from looked dead but even the walls down he looked alive, pulsing in a steady beat. "This place is freaky." I noted, having a habit of stating the obvious.

"Chris, when's Kuja going to show up?" Vivi asked.

"He isn't."

"What?"

"Not until a lot later anyway."

"Something's wrong!" Eiko shouted. Mog was sat on the floor, shivering uncontrollably. "She says something's approaching! From above!" At that moment something roared. The walls started moving more and more and a huge tree like creature rose up.

"Holy Jesus." Bruce said

__

"You are not Kuja." It said, its voice echoing in my mind.

"Damn right we ain't!" I shouted

__

"I see. So you seek to stop the mist from which you were created." It said, turning to Vivi.

"W-what?!" He said shaking in anger.

__

"I cannot lie. Mist is the dregs of Gaia's souls. A by-product of the filtering process. Kuja simply puts it to a different use. If I am defeated no more mist will flow, but no more puppets will be created."

"No more! No more will I allow you to use us for such foul purposes!" Vivi shouted, his little body was ablaze with fury.

__

"I have seen my end a thousand years from now, it is not now."

"Neil! Now!" I shouted.

"Got it!" He replied he concentrated and cast a life spell upon the Soulcage.

"What are you doing! Are you trying to heal it?!" Dagger shouted

"Trust me!" I replied. The life spell hit the tree and for a moment nothing happened. Then slowly the monster dropped to the floor and became dull.

"How…how did you know that would happen?" Eiko asked

"Easy. That monster was undead, so curative magic has an opposite effect on it." Neil explained.

"I'm glad that's over, now there's no more mist." Vivi said

~~~

We arrived back at Maiden Sari, after a terrified Morrison warned us of a thief that had stolen a sacred gem. A quick, frantic rush brought us to a small room in Eiko's house. Eiko sniffled, fighting back tears as she saw the box laid wide open.

"It's all my fault." She sniffled "Grandpa told me never to leave the village until I was old enough. Now look what happened."

"Hey, the thing that matters most is catching that god-damn thief and getting that gem back to its rightful place." Zidane said, trying to cheer up the heart-broken Eiko. I couldn't bear it for a minute longer, I just walked out.

"Damn mushy stuff." I said, walking to the Eidolon Wall, completely oblivious to the fact that Lani was already there. I couldn't care less. Suddenly, a blur shot by with a screaming Eiko. I gave chase and got to the Eidolon wall, then I foolishly ran in after them. Lani stood with the axe blade to Eiko's neck.

"One step further, and this little brat loses her head!" She said. I gave her one of my trademark evil looks. I slowly put my hand towards the quiver on my back, only to find no bow and no arrows.

"Looking for something?" A came from behind me and I felt a prick as a sharp blade was pressed against my back. "Don't move." I turned slowly to see a girl about my age, with long raven black hair and a long katana pressed up against my chest. Her emerald eyes, twinkled in the sunlight and a small object lying on her chest caught my eye. It was a pendant, just like mine only with a ruby in its centre.

__

"She's a spiritseer?!" Kirjava's voice pointed out as a mouse in my pocket, peeking her head out slightly so she could see. I reached towards my neck and got prodded by the katana. I carried on and brought my own emerald pendant into view. As her eyes crossed it, they widened in shock. She lowered the katana and sheathed it.

"Hey! What are you doing!" Lani shouted in surprise.

"Who are you?" She said.

"Chris Heald, heir to the spiritseer throne."

"Melissa Andrews, one of the world's greatest bounty hunters, or so I like to think." She said, brushing her silky hair to one side.

"Are you from Earth?" Once again she looked in shock.

"How did you know about Earth?"

"I'm from England."

"Same here, or so I used to be." She turned to Lani, "I can't kill him."

"Whaddya mean you can't kill him!? It's like pushing a knife through butter!" Lani shouted, outraged. "That kid's got a massive bounty on him! Brahne wants him dead!"

"So?!" Melissa said, drawing her katana and pointing it at Lani. "Taking hostages is just as bad!" Just then, Zidane, Dagger and Vivi, walked in.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Zidane said. Suddenly, a red blur dived off the Eidolon wall and into Lani, knocking her over.

"Red! Not you too! We're meant to be partners!"

"I don't partner with hostage taking scum like you."

"Someday, I'll collect the bounty on your head!" She shouted at Amarant before jumping away. Amarant smirked and turned to face Zidane.

"Now, fight me." He took a battle stance.

"What?" Zidane scratched his head confused.

"I came to even the sides, now fight me!" 

"Zidane…" Dagger said, with a worried expression on her face.

"It's ok." Zidane said, limbering up. He ran at Amarant and all hell broke loose. Amarant quickly jumped aside, tossing some gil at him from his money satchel. It hit Zidane hard as he turned and brought his daggers to bear. Amarant bounded away and launched a ball of energy at Zidane, blasting him in the chest. Blood dripped from the wound as he gasped for breath. Amarant charged at him, drawing his claw back for a vicious slash, but Zidane brought his daggers up and the claw blasted off them with a spray of sparks. It was Zidane's turn to be on the offensive as he slashed Amarant hard across the cheek, sending blood spraying a foot from his face. Amarant dropped onto his knees as Zidane's wound also caught up with him. They both took a breather, drinking a potion or two, their eyes never leaving the other's. Then, with a crash they flew into each other, Amarant's claw buried deep into Zidane's stomach. Amarant smirked once again and bounded backwards, ripping his claw from Zidane's gut. There was only so much pain he could take, he screamed as the claw flew out, bringing some flesh with it. 

"No!" Dagger shouted as she was held back by Neil and me. Amarant reached towards his money satchel, obviously planning to finish Zidane with another salvo of gil. But he couldn't find it. He looked at Zidane, who weakly grinned and held up Amarant's money, tossing it aside. Amarant roared in fury as he ran up to Zidane and smacked him with the claw across the face with enough power to kill an ordinary man. Zidane's body glowed as he went into Trance and he stood up, despite the terrifying wounds that pitted his body. Amarant growled and charged at Zidane, he simply countered by blasting Amarant across the makeshift arena with a sphere of orange energy. He crunched into the wall and raised his hand, surrendering. Zidane pulled off a backflip and folded his arms in a victory pose. That is, until his wounds got to him and he fell to the floor unconscious.

"Idiot." I said, slapping my forehead. Melissa just laughed.

~~~

"How long have you been here Melissa?"

"First, call me Mel, Secondly, I think I've been here for around two years."

"Wait a sec! Two years! I thought your name sounded familiar! You're the girl that was supposedly dead, but they never found your body. I read it in the newspaper."

"I can't stop wondering what my parents fell like now." She said her eyes filmed over, as if she was about to cry. I suddenly thought about what my parents are going through. They get worried if I go missing for 3 hours, let alone a week!

"Hey, we'll get home someday." We'd been sat talking in Eiko's house for the past half hour. Bruce and Neil were with Vivi at the Eidolon wall, Eiko was in her room with the gem and Zidane and Dagger were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, a small hawk flew in through the window and landed on Mel's shoulder.

__

"All clear!" He chirped.

"Oh, this is Nova." Kirjava sat on my shoulder as a tern.

"Kirjava." I replied, running my little finger along her back.

__

"Hi!" She piped up. 

"So you're the heir of the spiritseers." She said.

"Heck, I didn't know I was a seer until a week ago.

"I found out about a year ago."

"Lucky you." I stuck my tongue out at her and she laughed.

"Dammit, you're so immature, but I like it!"

"That's why everyone else does!" We sat laughing for a few seconds.

~~~

"I called you all here, apart from Vivi, he looked so peaceful sleeping. I've got something to announce."

"Go ahead." Zidane urged her on.

"From since I was five years old, I was a princess in Alexandria castle. All I can remember before that is a storm."

"Before that?" Eiko asked.

"I must have been here."

"Wow! That means we're sisters!"

"I guess it does."

"Welcome home!"

"Glad to be back!"

"I guess it's nice to know you have a place where you belong." Zidane said, a weak smile.

"Heh-heh. I know where you belong Zidane!" I said.

"What?! Where?" He asked eagerly.

"I'm not going to tell you! Yet." I added.

~~~

The sun was blazing away in the sky. We were all gathered at the entrance.

"So Mel, where are you going next?" Bruce asked.

"Dunno. I guess I'll hang around with you guys." She said, with a happy smile. Nova and Kirjava were flitting around as hummingbirds, their wings a mixture of colours. Suddenly, Amarant jumped forward.

"Why did I get beaten by you?"

"The sly eagle hides its claws." Zidane said simply.

"I'll join you until I can understand what makes you tick." Amarant said, folding his arms.

Right! Another chapter done with! Another character introduced! Another cliff-hanger solved! I know Amarant probably wouldn't say those kinda things, but my FF9 game is fucked up so I can't run a check on what really happens next! Don't worry though! I'll soon solve it. Bye!


	18. Chapter 18: Madness In The Tree

Disclaimer: I own Chris and Melissa but nothing else. Bruce and Neil are real people and Chris is based on myself (or how I'd like to be!).

**__**

Song Of The Week: New Born - Muse

This one might be a bit shorter but the next one will be twice as long!

**__**

Chapter 18: Madness In The Tree

"Great, we're stuck with the Flaming Turd!" Neil said exasperated.

"Look at it this way, at least we aren't stuck with Eiko!" Bruce replied.

"Stop arguing! We're almost there!" I shouted at them. We'd split into two groups. Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Eiko had gone one way. Amarant, Bruce, Neil, Melissa and myself had gone the other. For safety purposes, of course. Kirjava and Nova had flown ahead as falcons to check on the others. It was freaky for one thing. If I really concentrated, I could roll my eyes to the back of my head and see through her eyes. I could see in the distance a small group of dots closely bunched together as she soared through the sky.

__

"That must be them." She said. Another beauty of having a guardian is you could talk with them over long distances, their thoughts poured into yours, and in turn, your thoughts poured into theirs. _"By the looks of it, they're under attack. Nothing they can't handle though. Just a few imps and a big beetle."_

__

"Ok, make sure you get to them alright?" I said back

__

"Hey, stop worrying about me! I'll be fine!" I brought myself back to reality.

"They're ok, just a few monsters to deal with." I said.

"We're here." Amarant said quietly." I looked up at the familiar sight of the Lifa tree and noticed a small silver dot floating towards it.

"Kuja…" I said.

__

"I'm on my way back. They're not far off now. They should be about five minutes." Kirjava notified me.

__

"Got it." I replied

A few seconds later, Nova and Kirjava returned and perched on our shoulders. Another 5 minutes later and the rest showed up.

"About time. What took you so long?" Mel asked.

"Monster problems." He said

"Kuja's up there." Neil said. Everyone looked up at the small silver dot.

"Let's go." Dagger said.

~~~

After a complicated climb up the roots, we reached as high as we could. I could see Kuja standing by his silver dragon on a branch further up. I followed his line of sight and saw the Alexandrian fleet massing around the tree.

"Amarant, carry Vivi and Eiko up. Zidane, you and Dagger go piggyback and me and Mel will take Neil and Bruce up."

"Gotcha." Zidane acknowledged me and Dagger climbed onto his back. Amarant grabbed Eiko and Vivi under his arms and they set off. Kirjava and Nova morphed into large dragons. Kirjava was the usual white with black markings. Nova, on the other hand, was a silky black with lightning markings down his back. We climbed up onto the dragons and set off, the wind blowing through our hair. It wasn't long before we reached the branch below Kuja's. We sorted out our equipment and walked up. 

"Isn't it beautiful?" Kuja asked, his voice much like a wolf in sheep's clothing. It was soft and silky but you could feel the venom within it. He was much like a mixed up child. Sad bastard.

"Kuja! You have to stop this now!" Vivi shouted, his voice raised far louder than I've ever heard it before. "You've used for far too long!"

"Your mother's part in this play is about to come to a tragic end." He said, turning to Dagger, his gentle but fierce eyes trained on hers.

"Before she met you, my mother was a kind soul."

"I'm afraid that's where you're wrong. Look for yourself! Your greedy mother isn't content with one continent! She wants everything, and that will be her downfall."

"No…" She turned to look at me. I just nodded slowly. Then the first barrage hit us. Explosions erupted everywhere around us as Kuja jumped onto his silver dragon.

"Come forth spawn of the mist!" He shouted as large evil looking mist monsters formed around us. I put an arrow between the firsts many eyes as Bruce decapitated another with one quick sweep of his claymore. Melissa performed a backflip to escape another's reach before shoving the gleaming katana into its face. Zidane and Amarant shoved another off the branch we were standing on as it fell screaming to a grisly death. Another grabbed Eiko by the foot and slung her into the tree. Neil helped her back onto her feet as I jumped onto Kirjava's back and shot after Kuja. He dived quickly towards the ground and I quickly followed him, twisting and diving in the air to avoid the cannon shots being fired at us. Then there was a sharp blast. I looked up and saw a huge scaly dragon come diving towards me.

__

"Whoa!" Kirjava shouted as we rolled out of the way and I clung on for dear life. Bahamut turned to face Kuja and charged up several large fiery balls of energy, launching them all towards him. Kuja swayed for a second as the explosions engulfed him. A few seconds later he soared up from the smoke and raised his arms. I heard the crack of thunder and saw a huge eye appear from the sky, its iris was a huge targeting reticule.

"Get us out of here!" I shouted to Kirjava, but I was too late. The next second, huge blue waves of energy swept down upon us. I screamed in agony as my brain suddenly wanted to jump out my head, a high pitched screeching sound in my ears. Kirjava started twitching sickeningly as we plummeted towards the floor. I hit the floor hard, accompanied by the cracking of ribs and my arm breaking in several places. My eyes were watering from the pain as I tried to move my legs, but they were broken too. I just hoped someone found before any monsters did. The last sight I saw before dropping into unconsciousness was a silver dragon wheeling away into the sky and Kuja's soft laughter echoing throughout the sky…

Wahey! That's one half down, another half to go! Everyone review! I wanna see how many reviews I total up before starting the next half. Ciao! 


	19. Chapter 19: Alexandria's Downfall

Disclaimer: Same as before.

**__**

Song Of The Week: Dark Shines – Muse

I'm back! Let's carry on where we left off shall we?

**__**

Chapter 19: Alexandria's Downfall

"Where there is light, there will always be shadow." ~One of my favourite sayings~

It had been a week since we'd got back from the Outer Continent, thankfully I'd been healed back to full health, my broken bones now a thing of the past. Alexandria was bustling with excitement about the soon-to-be Queen Garnet and the fall of the previous Queen Brahne. Neil had been with Vivi a lot recently, Zidane had been drowning his sorrows, Bruce generally hung around in the weapon shops and Melissa wandered the outskirts of town keeping herself in tip-top condition. Myself? I've been doing a little sightseeing of course. The flowers in the central square were blooming magnificently, the moat around the castle gleamed in the sunlight, a few fish swum around carefree. Steiner was being a stickler for security, so I decided to help out on one of his "patrols" which entailed running around the castle like there was no tomorrow, shouting at Pluto Knights that weren't patrolling and hoping to catch someone trying to sneak in. As you can no doubt guess, it bored the hell outta me. After a while, I just wandered around the castle taking in the history around me. Anyway, it was afternoon in the town and again, people were going about their daily business. I was walking around in the castle's main hallway, when the rest of the gang showed up behind me.

"Hi." I said as Steiner jogged past.

"I shall go and inquire with the princess." He said, obviously in a huff. We stood around waiting for a while and then on the walkway above us, the door opened and Dagger walked out. She looked stunning in a long white dress that dragged along the floor behind her. She turned to look at us and smiled.

"Wow! You look nice Dagger!" Vivi said.

"Stunning." Freya added.

"Don't you have something to say Zidane?" Bruce asked.

"I-I can't." He said sitting down.

"Hey Dagger!" Eiko shouted as she ran up the stairs. Dagger turned to look at her. "Here, take two of my gems…"

"…and I'll give you two of mine."

"Will we ever see you again?"

"Of course Eiko. I just won't be able to go on adventures anymore." She said and smiled. Then she turned and walked back through the door.

"I had an entire speech planned, but when I saw her, the words just wouldn't come out of my mouth." Zidane said, looking at the floor ashamed.

~~~

"Don't tell me they went without me!" I said to myself. It looked like everyone had gone to Treno and left me behind. Now what could I do? I could go for a swim in the moat, to keep fit. I walked towards the moat and dived into the water, ripples flying everywhere. The eerie calm of the underwater world always had a nice effect on me. A small fish swam past my face and shot off into the distance. Suddenly something much larger bumped into me. I broke the surface and shook my head so I could see. Melissa popped up at the same time laughing.

"What the hell?" I said. "What're you doing here?"

"Taking a relaxing swim, what are you doing?"

"Well I was taking a swim as well." I said, brushing a weed off my head. I climbed out and cast a small fire spell to dry off with. The sun was setting in the distance.

"I'd better head back to my hotel room." I told Mel. Then I remembered what was going to happen tonight. "Listen, meet me in the town square tonight at 11 o'clock."

"Why?"

"Trust me."

"Ok, see you tonight." She waved goodbye and I set off back to the hotel.

~~~

The moons and stars were blazing in the night sky. Kirjava was a bat sat on my shoulder.

__

"She's coming." She said.

"Hi." She said, her eyes lit up by the twin moons.

"Stay quiet." I said as I signalled for her to hide with me.

"What are we waiting for?" She asked

"Just wait." I whispered. A few minutes later, a familiar figure walked out from behind the statue. His white silk clothes stood out a mile off. He whispered something and raised his hands.

"Bahamut! Come visit your former master!" Kuja shouted. A flash lit up the sky and the familiar scaly titanic dragon fell gracefully from the sky, hundreds of fireballs followed him down, annihilating hundreds of houses and people before they even knew what was happening. I leapt from the cover and aimed to tackle Kuja but he turned and blasted by aside with a thundara spell. I gritted my teeth and pulled out my dagger, leaping towards him again and then he disappeared, to be replaced by hundreds of Mistodons. I switched realms along with Melissa and we ran down the high street, the spirits of the dead cheering us on, some followed us, drawing their weapons. Vincent was among them.

"You two! Concentrate on bringing us into the material realm! We'll hold them off while you get to the castle!" He shouted orders to the group of seers behind him. We all joined in a big circle, so we were all touching and I switched realms. The mistodons appeared around us but the group of warriors were ready. They leapt into battle, killing several of them before they could react.

"Go!" Vincent shouted at us, pulling out a silver gleaming pistol, blasting anything that moved into oblivion. We ran on up to the moat where another mistodon met its death at the sharp end of our weapons. I slowly guided the boat over the silent waters, fires roaring in the background. We jumped off and ran into the main room of the castle to see Dagger lying unconscious on the floor below the picture of her mother. I ran towards her and was blasted back across the room by an invisible barrier. I got back onto my feet.

"Now what?" Mel asked.

"We'll have to wait." I replied, so we waited, slaughtering any monster that came across our path. After a while, Dagger groaned and awoke, rubbing her eyes.

"What're you doing here?" She asked walking forwards

"Don't go any further. You've got some weird type of barrier around you."

"Then what should I do?" Just then, some strange music started playing in the distance. All the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

"It's coming from the roof." Mel said, looking up.

"Dagger, head up there and we'll meet you later." She nodded and wandered upstairs. I turned to Melissa. "Get out of here and help out in town. This place is gonna come tumbling down soon."

"What are you going to do?! You can't stay here and wait!"

"I've gotta wait for Zidane and guide him up to Dagger." The castle shook. "That'll be Alexander. Get going." She nodded and reluctantly turned away.

"Be careful."

"I'll be fine." I said as she left "You be careful…" I turned and ran up the stairs, through the maze of corridors and stairways. Halfway there I got lost and wandered into Dagger's room. I turned around and ran up to the roof. The castle shook again, throwing me into the wall. I carried on until I got to the altar.

"Kirjava, head up and see if those two are ok."

__

"Alright." I stood waiting for Zidane and the rest of the group. _"They're ok, they're a bit shook up but they'll be fine."_

"Right, get ready for a hasty escape." I warned her.

"Chris!" Neil shouted as he ran up the stairs.

"That was a long walk! Is the princess alright?" Cid asked.

"She's fine, Zidane head up and see her."

"Alright." He said and ran up the stairs.

"The rest of you guys, get out of here."

"What! We can't just leave you here!" Bruce shouted.

"This place is gonna blow up! You don't have to play hero! Let Zidane handle it!" Neil exclaimed

"I gotta stay here!"

"Stop being so stupid! You're gonna get yourself killed!" The castle shook again as the massive eye appeared once again.

"Forget it Neil, it's obvious he's not gonna change his mind." Bruce said

"I came all this way for you two to play hero? Next time don't bother calling me. Later." Amarant waved in a dismissive manner and walked off. 

"Be careful." Freya advised me before she also left.

"Chris…" Neil said, trying desperately to change my mind, but it wasn't going to work.

"Leave him be, he'll turn out just fine." Cid said. Vivi, Neil and Bruce walked away with him. I turned to look up. I had a matter of seconds to get up to the top. I dived into a full out sprint, leaping three steps at a time. I saw Zidane, Dagger and Eiko standing staring at the eye, it almost engulfed the entire sky.

"Hey, I thought you'd…" Zidane shouted but he was cut short by the huge ways of blue light that drifted down over us. Suddenly the huge silky white feathers around us started to burn and melt away. I could see the skeleton of those once magnificent angel wings before they disappeared entirely. Dagger's pendant started to flash, forcing her backward towards the edge. The floor beneath her started to crack. Suddenly Kirjava, as a wolf, leapt in and dragged her backwards. Then the floor gave way and she fell, howling to the wind. I screamed as she fell and hit the side of the wall, my side erupting in a blaze of pain. I felt her morph into a nightingale and soar back towards us. Then chaos erupted. The eye above us fired a beam of blazing blue light on the dying eidolon. Zidane grabbed a long string with small flags adorning it. He reached out for my hand as Dagger and Eiko jumped on.

"Go! I'll fly outta here!" He nodded and swung away into the flames erupting from the once great Alexander. Kirjava switched to a dragon and I jumped on her back, leaping away from the crumbling castle. The wind rushed through my hair as I turned and looked at the scene of destruction behind me. Then the Invincible fired the main shot. The entire castle exploded and flames swept towards us, superheating the air behind us. Suddenly, a searing pain ran through my head and I dropped unconscious instantly.

**__**

Dream 3: The Final Showdown

I looked around the room I was in. The hall was grand to say the least, massive tapestries adorned the walls, a huge chandelier hung from the roof sparkling with the light from a thousand candles. I looked down at my weapon and was shocked to see a silver Desert Eagle in a black leather holster. I pulled it out, checking its ammo. One shot. I checked my pockets. A tiny silver bottle, with a gleaming colourless liquid inside. Movement up ahead. I pointed the handgun towards it, breathing deeply to steady my aim. A familiar figure was standing by a large comfy looking chair. He stared at me.

"You look surprised." Draco said

"You've destroyed all I've ever known, my hometown, my life. I don't why I don't just shoot you now." I said, my hand was trembling.

"Careful now, you wouldn't want to hurt my special guest." He pulled another familiar figure out of the shadow. He had his crossbow firmly held at her head. Her emerald eyes were glistening with tears.

"Melissa?!"

"That's right, you've been a thorn in my side for far too long. I don't how you survived our last encounter. But I can assure you, you won't survive this time."

"Shoot him, ignore me just shoot the bastard." I took a deep breath, and levelled the gun at him. Then I looked again. Melissa was crying, but she still had that mischievous grin on her face. She was up to something, she had to be.

"Well, you could die now. I'll make it as painless as I can, or you can die the hard way, and you will die screaming." He said. I smiled. 

"This just isn't my day." I said and then I fired… 


	20. Chapter 20: The City Of Angels

Disclaimer: Read the others.

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Song Of The Week: Unintended – Muse

This computer is driving me insane! First everything starts crashing so we flatten the hard drive, then the building work starts in the dining room so this is now in my bedroom, then it starts crashing again! Jeez, Fate doesn't like me writing does it? Anyway, because the P.C is in my room, I currently have no access to the Internet! Arrgh! Can it get any worse?! On with the next chapter!

**__**

Chapter 20: The City Of Angels

"Desire spawns Madness. Madness leads to Disaster. Mankind never learns." ~ Quote from Front Mission 3 ~

"Doesn't look good does it?" I said as we did a flyby of Alexandria. Buildings everywhere were ruined, the castle itself was wrecked, it's once magnificent sword cracked in half, towers fallen into the moat. I noticed on the moonlit seas a small boat sailing towards the castle.

__

"That must be the others." Kirjava said, surveying the city. We glided in lower and landed swiftly on the pathway. I looked around, monsters were dead everywhere and so were many citizens. Some were just stood staring trying to make sense of it all, others were crying over the bodies of the fallen. A familiar clanking noise sounded behind me. I turned to see Steiner limping over. A heavy gash had been torn into his right leg, blood flowing to the ground. I passed him a potion and he took a quick swig, the wound slowly flowing together.

"You haven't seen Lady Beatrix have you?" He asked, straightening his armour out, which was way more scuffed than usual.

"Have you seen Melissa?" I asked. I was worried that I'd sent her to her death when I asked her to go and help him.

"The last I saw of them was during the fight against these horrendous monsters. There was an explosion, and I lost them in the smoke and flying rubble."

"I'm sure they're both fine. Hey, we're talking about the general of Alexandria and a world famous bounty hunter here! I'm sure they've been through worse." I said, consoling the ashamed Steiner.

"But it's all my fault! I promised that I would fight until the flesh had been cleaved from my bones. But I failed them." He looked down in repent.

"Like I said, they'll be fine. We should concentrate on finding Dagger first!" I said turning towards the castle.

~~~
    
    "Over here Captain!" Weimar shouted to Steiner. He was pointing frantically at the prone body of Zidane. I ran over and checked out what state he was in. He had some cuts from flying glass across his entire body and a few nasty looking bruises on his head and he was also unconscious. Great. Steiner was knelt beside Dagger, who was waking slowly. I walked over to Eiko who had just awaked.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, is Zidane alright?"

"Just a few bruises and cuts but he'll be fine." I said. I turned to Steiner.

"Mind giving me some help?" I said lifting Zidane by one shoulder, Steiner lifting him with the other as we tramped down to the docks. After a wild ride on the statue, I saw the _Blue Narciss _docked. Its sails were neatly wrapped up on the deck.

"Chris! You're okay!" Neil shouted from the boat.

"What? You doubted me?" I shouted back. He just smiled. "Let's get this dozy git to Lindblum." I said to Steiner. We took Zidane on board the ship, closely followed by Dagger and Eiko. The great sails swept open and the wind sent us drifting into the wide open expanse.

"If it's okay with you guys, I'll just take a quick nap." Dagger said, smiling weakly. She was trying to appear light-hearted but I could tell that she was deeply troubled. Without another word she clambered down into the cabins below. The sea breeze was lovely on my skin as Alexandria disappeared into the distance.

"I'll go take a nap too, I'm pooped." I said while climbing down the ladder. There were a few beds lined up along the hull, all in an immaculate blue quilt. Dagger lay wide-awake on one of the beds at the far end.

"What have I done?" She asked herself "This is all my fault." She sighed deeply.

"Hey, there's nothing you could have done. I know it's hard, but you've just gotta let go of these things. Otherwise it'll hurt, more than anything else in the world."

"I've lost Mother, failed the people I'm supposed to look after, all the space of a few weeks." She cried.

"Look at it this way, the quicker we get Kuja and stop this madness, the quicker the world will get back on track. Never think of the negative things. Always look on the bright side of life. Every cloud has its silver lining, you've just got to find the lining on this one." I consoled her. I looked over at the motionless Zidane. "That dozy git isn't gonna wake up until seven days from now."

"Everyone tries to protect me all the time. Why am I so important?" 

"Listen, I have to tell you something."

"I'm all ears."

"In seven days time, after Zidane wakes up, you'll temporarily lose your voice."

"Why?"

"All the things and questions in you mind will send you into an emotional breakdown. This is a possible future. If you can straighten your mind before that, then it probably won't happen."

"Why do you tell me these things?"

"Because I've seen the future of this world, and personally, I don't like it. Anyway, get some sleep. You need it." 

"Okay." She lay down to sleep and I walked to my own bed and lay down. It wasn't long before the smooth rocking of the boat slid me into a silent sleep.

**__**

Dream 4: Zion

"Wow." I said, looking upon the huge city that lay in the crater.

"That's gotta be the biggest city I've ever seen." Neil looked on in awe.

"I never thought a place like this would exist in the spirit realm." I turned to Vincent.

"This is the capital of every spirit realm in the universe. This is where everything comes together. The central meeting place of every spirit anywhere." He said looking on. "This is the last of the seven centres. There was Nirvana, Valhalla, Heaven, Zion, Kalmana, Medula and Sanubia. Then the wraiths appeared, and all hell broke loose."

"Wraiths?" Melissa asked

"A wraith is what a spirit becomes after it is consumed by darkness. It's the living incarnation of all our worst fears and dreads. They destroyed everything except Zion and Nirvana. Nirvana is still in one piece although its residents are another story. Most have gone insane, others suspect everyone and won't let anything or anyone in or out." He said with a sigh.

"That doesn't sound good." Bruce said.

"It isn't. Dying at the hands of a wraith is one of the most excruciatingly painful experiences anyone can go through. My sleep is still haunted by the screams of those who have fallen to the wraiths."

"I guess it isn't the best thing to meet in a dark alley then." Neil said, staring at the city below.

"Zion's had a few close shaves in the past, but the Reapers have held them off."

"What are Reapers?" I asked.

"Reapers are our only defence against the wraiths. They are humans born with a natural immunity against wraiths. They can't touch them and are terrified of them. That gives the reapers a chance to fight back." Vincent whispered before starting to walk towards the bustling city.

~~~

We were strolling along a main road In Zion and it was the most breathtaking experience I'd ever seen. The streets were bustling with people, some stopped to wave or stare. Others went about their daily business. The amazing thing was that there were no cars. Instead, the citizens preferred to walk. Some spiritseers soared overhead every now and then with their guardians in dragon form. Kirjava and Nova were perched on our shoulders while Alisa was by Vincent's side as a snowy wolf, her fur almost glowed white. Suddenly, a man dropped beside us from his guardian. He was fully covered in a ink black armour with a long black sword at his belt. He had shiny silver hair and cold blue eyes as he dusted himself off.

"What're you doing here Cain?" Vincent said, turning to him.

"We've got bad news sir." He sighed. "It'd be better if you saw it yourself."

"Right." We walked a little faster until we reached what looked like a town hall. The front doors were huge and had angel motifs all over it. We walked inside as two more men wearing black armour opened them for us. The front hall was magnificent but we ran straight through into another room. This one was bustling with more men in black armour and some spiritseers wearing black cloaks. There was a huge screen at the front with many different numbers and runic letters. Suddenly, everyone turned around to look at us silently. It was the strangest feeling I'd ever had. We walked over to a panel nearby.

"Here's a blueprint of Zion." Cain said, tapping various buttons. A massive picture of Zion appeared on the main screen. "Here's the problem." He tapped a few more buttons and the blueprint turned into a live picture over the city. It zoomed in a part of the outskirts and I gasped as I saw what everyone was worried about. Thousands upon thousands of tall pillars of mist were floating straight towards the city.

"My god." Vincent whispered in horror.

"It's a wraith host, and it's heading straight for us." Cain said, looking at the screen blankly.

"Sound the alarm. Get everyone in the city to shelters. Post the Reapers at these points around the city and raise the wraith shield." Vincent ordered calmly, pointing at certain points on the living map.

"I'll get right on it." He tapped a button on the console and a small microphone popped out of the console. He picked it up.

"Attention, this is a Class Two wraith alert. All Reapers head to battle stations, all spiritseers guide the civilians to the appropriate shelters ASAP." He spoke calmly. Cain slid a helmet with a small microphone and a glass display over one eye, relaying battle data to him.

"I'll lead the rest of the Reapers into battle myself."

"Good luck, don't go dying on me." Vincent said, shaking Cain's hand as a friend. Cain nodded and left quickly. Suddenly there was a loud humming sound as the entire city was surrounded by a huge wall of bright blue energy. People ran from the streets towards bunkers, guided in by spiritseers in long lines.

"This is bad…" Bruce said unhappily

"This is war…" I whispered in shock.

~~~
    
    I woke up with a start in a bed in Lindblum castle. It seemed the total opposite of where I'd just been in my sleep. I was just happy that it wasn't happening right now. But was it? I couldn't be too sure of anything. It was all just getting too strange. What did these dreams mean? Is what I just dreamed real or just my imagination? It just didn't make sense…

Like it? Give me feedback! As I explained at the beginning, I haven't updated because I have no Internet access whatsoever! I **would **update at school, only they filtered it so we can't go Fanfiction.net! Why?! What did we ever do to them?! Anyway, I'll update ASAP but I can't promise anything. That's why you haven't been able to contact me on YM as well. Oh well… See ya next time!


	21. Chapter 21: The Power Of Trance

Disclaimer: Again, I have removed the "offending" material, which was some lyrics to a well-known song. Well, not that well-known, but still, I don't think the staff would care about that point.

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Song Of The Week: Sunburn – Muse

Thanks for the response to my problems, you lot are so kind! Before anyone else asks me, Zion is from The Matrix and that's where I got the idea from. Okie-dokes! Let's continue!

****

Chapter 21: The Power Of Trance

"You mustn't allow yourself to be chained to fate." Naomi Hunter, Metal Gear Solid

The night sky was once again ablaze with stars, now that the mist was gone. The moons seemed to stare at me from their high perches, one blood red, one just like ours, a pale white ball of rock floating around in space. A calm, cool breeze was blowing over the top of Lindblum castle. It had been four days since I had escaped the explosion in Alexandria, four long boring days of sunshine and clear skies. I couldn't sleep, I'd been far too uneasy these past four days, it'd been far too quiet. Zidane was still in his coma, I couldn't determine whether Dagger would lose her voice, now that I'd told her. Then there was the increasing problem of where Kuja had run off to. Of course Neil and I knew, Bruce had an inkling and the others had no idea the Desert Palace even existed. So, there I was, standing looking over the battlements at the very top of Lindblum. I started to hum the words to a song I'd heard a very long time ago.

I haven't heard that song in ages, back when I was on Earth, when I didn't have to worry about cross-dressing freaks trying to take over the world, or a race of people that I never knew existed. It seemed so long ago… Suddenly I noticed a flash in the distance. I ran up to the telescope that resided on the top and put my eye to the eyepiece. I twiddled with zoom and focus and gasped. A lone figure was being attacked by mistodons. They must have escaped from Alexandria before it exploded. I couldn't tell who it was, but they looked in serious trouble, I could see blood spattering onto the floor.

"Way ahead of you." Kirjava appeared right next to me in dragon form (that seemed to be her favourite). I jumped on and she took off, flying towards them faster than a ray of light. As we closed in I stood up and prepared to jump off onto a mistodon's back. The scenery was heavily blurred as we shot faster and faster towards the ailing fighter. I took a deep breath and pulled out my bow and looked at the arrowhead as a white light started to glow from it. A holy arrow, that had taken a while for Neil to elementally imbue a few for me. I had to admit he was taking to white magic almost as fast as Dagger was. I released it into the heart of a monster as we shot past. We swung around and I jumped off and rolled to the ground, firing off another arrow into the crowd of enemies. I looked at the fighter and blinked in shock. Melissa had a huge gash torn in her arm and was losing blood rapidly. The smell of blood seemed to drive the fiends made with delight, rearing into the air in madness. Suddenly, out of the crowd, stomped a huge Grand Dragon.

"Oh friggin' hell" I said as I fired off another arrow. The dragon roared in anger, shaking the land around us

"Dammit! I can't use my arm!" Mel said, clutching it in pain. More blood was dripping to the floor constantly. The dragon lunged at me but Kirjava rammed into it at the last minute, sending it sprawling across the floor. I ducked as an icicle soared towards my head. Nova was keeping the mistodons at bay.

"We've gotta get out of here!" I shouted, punching the mistodon that was charging at me with the bow's edge, which was now tipped in a blade that released a deadly neuro-toxin as soon as it penetrated skin. It jerked and dropped dead instantly.

"I wouldn't go into the spirit realm at the moment!" She shouted back, wincing in pain as the grand dragon punched the bear-like Nova in the stomach. He roared in pain and slashed it across the face with razor sharp claws. Kirjava was tearing mistodons apart as a massive serpent of some sort. It looked a lot like the Midgar Zolom from FF7. Blood was flying everywhere as she ripped a mistodon in half and flung its remains into the face of another. I took a look in the spirit realm and quickly realised what Mel was talking about. There were about ten wraiths hanging around waiting for us. One looked straight at me and shrieked to the others in a high pitched voice. It was painful to hear and I quickly switched back to the real world just as one reached out to grab me. I felt a sharp in my legs as I noticed that Kirjava (sorry about having to use the full name all the time, but it's hard to come with a nickname for that!) had had a claw shoved into her lower body. The mistodon soon wished he hadn't as he was ripped into bloody chunks and spread over a hundred metre area.

"Jesus! That fucking hurt!" That's the first time I've ever heard her swear in my life, I think I was starting to rub off on her.

"Tell me about it!" I shouted, clutching my legs in pain. There was nothing I could do though. The pain was purely spiritual and I wasn't bleeding or anything. I just had to grin and bear it. Suddenly, I was surrounded in a bright light as I slowly felt my body changing into something else. It was like watching a speeded up movie of a flower growing. It was weird, I saw things happening to me that would be immensely painful to normal people but for some reason it didn't bother me. First, my clothes changed into a light but strong white armour with deep black motifs that crawled all the way up my arms and legs. I suddenly felt a hell of a lot stronger and faster. Finally the transformation ended and I leapt forward slicing the head off the nearest mistodon. My dagger had the same mechanism of the blades that were on my bow. A deadly neuro-toxin is injected into the bloodstream on the moment of piercing. It immediately travels to the brain and takes out the vital life systems in your body, killing you almost instantly, depending on the defences in your blood and how immunised you are to the toxin. The mistodon didn't have a chance. I brought the blade up into the chin of another monster and ripped it out, stabbing the one behind me in the gut. I looked around at all the dead mistodons. All that remained was the Grand Dragon. I leapt into the air and almost mechanically raised my hands, almost as if I'd been programmed to do this. A massive pinkish purple blast erupted from my hands, blowing the head clean off the dragon. I dropped to the floor, emotionally and physically drained. I'd just cast what looked like Ultima, but on a much smaller scale, and it felt like it was killing me. I couldn't move as I changed out of Trance and back to normal. Kirjava reformed into her dragon form, but I could tell that even she was drained from what I'd done.

"You saved my life…" Mel said, looking at me.

"Wasn't a problem. I just wanna get back to the castle and sleep like there's no tomorrow." I said as we flew back to the castle.

I looked around on the boat, waves lapping at the side in a soothing rhythm. Apparently, I'd slept for five days after the incident. Ultima really kicks the shit out of you in order to perform it. It's such a powerful spell that it almost kills you while casting it. Dagger had lost her voice, Zidane was now awake and we were on our way to Black Mage Village. No-one needed to explain why, I already knew. We'd heard that the mages had rejoined Kuja on empty promises. It just sickened me. Melissa had been pretty silent herself on the way. She just looked at the retreating Mist Continent, while I looked at the approaching Outer Continent and relaxed while listening to the sound of the waves.

"How the heck did you cast Ultima?" Neil asked for the umpteenth time.

"I told you last time, I went into Trance and blew the shit out of a Grand Dragon."

"Hey, I know what it's like to go into Trance. It's so cool, you feel like you can take on the world" Bruce said smiling.

"Well so do I." Neil said

"Huh? When did you go into Trance?" I asked

"In Cleyra, while fighting Beatrix." Neil answered. "It makes you feel like air, light and fluffy."

"Well your both right about something, for once."

"What?" They both said simultaneously.

"It does make you feel light and fluffy, and it does make you feel like you can take on the world." I said, smiling. The others had no idea what I was so happy about…

Black Mage Village was completely silent, not even the birds were singing. It was strange how eerily silent it was. It's like the village was dead, that Kuja had stolen the life out of it. I knew exactly where to look, I lead the others along the silent pathways, as if the happiness here had died long ago. Finally, we reached the cemetery, where there was one solitary mage standing there, looking so forlorn. None of us could possibly have any idea what the black mages had been through. Now Kuja wanted to kill their happiness and will to live, to make them return to his services, with dark, empty promises of prolonged life. It sickened me.

"I can't take this anymore. We're going stop Kuja, right now. We're going to go to his secret underground Desert Palace, and we're going to kick his ass into the next millennium, so I don't have to see people heartbroken anymore. Otherwise, I am going to be extremely angry, so angry in fact, that I'll probably walk in there and kill anything I see." I said firmly. Bruce and Neil know exactly what to do in this situation. When I see red, it's better to take cover before I explode than to run away screaming.

"Finally! Now we can get him back for what he did to Alexandria! That little rat-bastard! No offence Freya." Eiko said happily

"None taken, I'll be happy to see Kuja gone more than anyone else here." She said

"I don't doubt that for a second Freya. For Alexandria, for Burmecia and for Cleyra. They shall be avenged!" Bruce shouted, fiercely.

"For what he's done to the black mages, he will pay dearly! I just wanna take that bastard on right here, right now!" Neil shouted.

"For all that have been lost, we will end this now!" I said, turning towards the others. We all nodded in agreement and turned to leave…

Okay people! That's another chapter successfully completed, but as we all know, this won't be the end! But, does anyone know what Chris was talking about? Hmmm, the plot thickens. See ya next time!


	22. Chapter 22: Deep Beneath The Sands

Disclaimer: I have already explained, so shove it!

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Song Of The Week: Eye Of The Tiger – Rocky "whatever number it was"

Okay, I know I've been gone a long time, longer than I would like to have been. But housework, schoolwork, coursework and over-working parents are starting to take their toll on me. I may not update as much as I used to, but I'll damn well try! I almost wrote myself into a corner in this chapter, but I managed to get it sorted. This has been the most difficult yet, and I fear it will get worse before it gets better. On a more positive note, I've found an interesting forum at . I'm Vincent while I'm there so don't forget to say hi!

**__**

Chapter 22: Deep Beneath The Sands

"Darkness is the heart's true essence!" Ansem, Kingdom Hearts

"Oww, my head hurts." I sat in my cell after being dumped through the roof into the floor. One minute we'd been walking along absolutely fine through a desert, the next minute, we were in sinking sand. 

"Whoa!" Mel shouted before landing in a very compromising position.

"Well, fancy meeting you in a dump like this!" I said

"Sorry." She said, embarrassed.

"No problem." I said, feeling my cheeks burn up. She laughed.

"At least I had a soft landing. That must of really hurt landing on your head like that."

"Pssh, I've had worse. It's not as bad as having a large sharp sword shoved through your lungs. That wakes you up." I said, dusting myself off. "Now what?"

"I have no idea. I thought you were the expert."

"Hey, I'm not perfect!"

"I think we figured that out a long time ago."

"No need to insult me."

"C'mon, you know I was joking!" She laughed.

"At the moment I'm more worried about what's going to happen next." I looked at the swirl pattern on the floor. I turned to the wall and pressed my ear against it, hearing a rumbling sound.

"I guess I don't have any choice." Zidane's muffled voice emitted from the room next door.

"Zidane! When you get back, don't believe Kuja!" I shouted through the wall.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about Chris, but I trust you!" Zidane shouted back. Footsteps, then the sound of a door shutting.

"Now what?" Melissa looked at me quizzically.

"Now we wait."

~~~

"How long have we gotta wait!?" She said, pacing up and down.

"Shush. I'm concentrating." I replied, staring at the door in front of me. I stood up and held my hands out, concentrating on a fira spell. A wall of flame erupted from my outstretched hands, superheating the metal.

"What was the point in that? It won't melt." Mel said, running a hand through her hair, seeming the temperature had just gone up 50 degrees.

"Watch. It's a good thing I always listen in science." I then launched a blizzara spell at the door. It shattered instantly. I leant on the wall and breathed deeply. Mel passed me an ether and before long I was back to reality. I walked along the walkway, the lava below hissed menacingly. I carried on until I reached a small room, where a hedgehog pie was growling at me. I kicked the cage aside and flipped the hourglass on the other side of the room, it's deep red sands now running in the opposite direction. Sorted. I trekked back, seeing the others out of their cells.

"Where to, boss?" Naz asked me.

"Let's see, Zidane, Freya, Amarant and Bruce. They've all gone to Oeilvert. That leaves us with Naz, Steiner, Dagger, Quina, Eiko, Melissa and myself. That'll be more than enough to get to Kuja!" I explained

"Then what are we waiting for?" Eiko shouted before charging off along the walkway.

"Hey wait!" Quina replied, bounding after her. Dagger simply shrugged and jogged after them.

"Princess! Wait!" Steiner said before following suite, a large clanging noise accompanying his every step.

"Well, I guess that leaves us three." Naz muttered. 

"I always hated this place. The first time I did this in the game it took me a while to figure out some of the puzzles. Especially the last one!" I answered before we walked off after the others. 

~~~

Everything ran smoothly, the puzzles took a while and the security system was taken down with relative ease. We arrived just outside Kuja's chamber pretty quick.

"Kuja is just beyond here." I explained to the others. The torches nearby flickered ominously, casting strange shadows in the room.

"Right, let's rock!" Naz shouted before charging through the double doors. We followed behind him, but the door shut before Eiko could get through. I heard her scream and I turned back and banged on the door. 

"Hey, they took Eiko!" Quina stated as the Zidane and the others piled through the door.

"Dammit, now he's got Eiko AND the Gulug stone!" He said.

"We have to get back to the Blue Narciss, and quick!" Bruce shouted as we ran back to the ship.

~~~

The ship rocked smoothly from side to side. In the distance, I could see the small dot that was the Hilda Garde 1, floating towards Esto Gaza. It was a clear blue sky, not something see often when you live near me. The air was starting to get increasingly chilly and a few minutes ago I thought I saw a small sprinkling of snow. Dagger walked up on the deck, her breath causing a small puff of mist.

"How are you doing?" I asked. She smiled and did the okay symbol. I nodded and turned back to the edge of the boat, watching the water swish by. Every now and then, I could spot a small shoal of fish, twinkling in the clear light. I sighed and thought about how my parents were doing. They were probably worried sick. I hadn't left any sign of where I'd gone, for all they knew, I could be dead. It was a horrifying thought. The police would be all over the place, but I knew they wouldn't find anything, just like when Melissa had gone missing. Everyone thought she was dead, but they never found a body, or any evidence of her so-called murder. Naz walked up onto the deck.

"What you doing?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'll write a story about this, if we get back alive."

"When we get back. We'll be fine, but no-one will believe us."

"Hell, this'll do well as a fanfic!"

"Yeah. Maybe someone out there will believe us."

Okay, I might not take as long with the next chapter, I know this one is short but I don't have much time anymore. When this all over, they'll be longer again. Just you wait!


	23. Chapter 23: The Frozen Volcano

Disclaimer: You know this by now, but I'll do it anyway. (deep breath) Final Fantasy 9 and all otherwise references towards the series are property of Square-Enix, and are being used for non-profit. Thecharacters "Chris" and "Melissa" are owned by Christopher Heald (that being me), "Bruce" is owned by Bruce Thomson and "Naz" is owned by Neil Day. Any other references/products/names are owned by their respective owners unless otherwise noted.

I'd like to thank anyone who is reading this that has been with the story since the very beginning as you have had to wait at least (checks watch) three years for this update. I've changed a lot over the years, but hopefully I've still got the creative touch that allowed you to start reading this story in the first place. As to all you newbies, welcome to my world!

Chapter 23: The Frozen Volcano

Cold. The first word to enter my mind as we left the ship heading for Esto Gaza. Back on Earth, we were lucky if we saw any snow whatsoever in Britain. Now I was sick of the sight of it. More importantly, I was sick of the temperature of it. If you shoved your head in the freezer and put it on full blast, then you'd get an inkling of what it was like here.

Kuja's ship had definitely landed somewhere in this general area. Obviously it had landed in Mount Gulug, but we didn't have a clue where that was.

"Well, where do we start?" Zidane asked in confusion.

"I reckon we split up to search around better." If we all stick together, we could be too late." Neil replied, looking around at the group. There were eleven of us, which meant that two groups of four and one group of three would be the best option. We split up quite evenly, Freya, Amarant and Quina as our group of three, Zidane, Dagger, Steiner and Vivi as one group of four, while Neil, Bruce, Mel and myself made up our last group. To keep communication between the groups, Kirjava went with Zidane and co, while Nova went with Freya and co.

"Where now?" I asked Neil. He pondered for a minute, before proudly proclaiming...

"Thataway!" He pointed towards the nearby mountain range.

"How obvious." Melissa rolled her eyes. Just as she said that, the blizzard started to kick up, getting stronger every second we stood out there. Trust me to be wearing the most impractical of clothes in a snowstorm. I looked around as the visibility started decreasing and noticed a small cavern in the side of one of the mountains.

"You see that?" I said out loud, indicating the direction of the cave.

"Yeah, we'd better hide out there for a while until this blizzard calms down." Bruce pointed out.

The cave was small and dank, the walls were covered in ice and moss. A quick look around later and we noticed that it was not a cave but actually a tunnel, leading deep into the mountain. I was about to say something when a voice shot through my mind.

"_We're in Esto Gaza now. How's things at that end?" _Kirjava's voice entered my thoughts.

_We've found a tunnel leading into a mountain, I think it might be Gulug." _I sent my thoughts back. I felt a subconscious nod.

"_Alright. Be careful down there." _Melissa looked at me.

"They're in Esto Gaza."

"I know. I reckon this tunnel should lead us all to Kuja, so we should be prepared. If you hear anything coming from the end of the tunnel, start running. I'll need the help." They all nodded. I vanished into the spirit realm, watching the walls around me contort, strangely forming a stony walled tunnel, lit with electric lamps. I looked in confusion for a few seconds before starting to jog down towards the lit area at the end.

The chamber was well lit with more electric lamps, which I was finding increasingly strange. In the centre of the floor was a hatch of some sort, where I could see the fuzzy forms of Zorn, Thorn and Eiko. I took a quick look around and noticed Kuja saying something, although I couldn't quite make out what. Eiko's motionless form was completely still, yet there was an aura emanating from her. It took me a moment to realise that the light was not coming from Eiko, but from something smaller, something small yet with a huge spiritual aura. Before my line of thought could finish, there was a stunning flash of light. Something absolutely huge erupted out of nowhere and blasted Zorn and Thorn with a huge energy bolt. I could feel the light washing over me, bringing an utmost calm. I shook my head to regain my thoughts and moved into position behind the fuzzy form of Kuja. Bringing the knife out of it's sheath, I brought myself into the material realm, watching the electric lamps disappear and be replaced by burning torches. Immediately I brought the blade up to Kuja's throat and placed my other arm around his chest, making it impossible for him to move without me cutting off his air supply.

"Leave her alone, or this story will be cut very short indeed." I threatened, putting emphasis onto the word "cut". He sighed and stayed still.

"You again. I must admit our encounters are becoming quite aggravating, spiritseer." He replied, almost bored. I was shocked. How did he know about the Spiritseers? In my moment of puzzlement, I felt a huge electrical shock burst into my body. I recoiled instictively, falling back against the hard, cold stone wall. He turned around and brought his hand to my face, blasting a flare spell at me, aiming to strike a finishing blow. I quickly fell back into the spirit realm and moved around to his back again. I brought myself back, pointing an arrow from my bow directly at his face as he turned around. He smiled vindictively.

"How do you know about us?" I asked, keeping the bow leveled at him. He sighed once again.

"I have met your leader, the so called High Seer of your kind. He knows of my plan, and said that he'll do everything he can to stop me." He laughed. "Truly pathetic. Not even Garland can stop me once my plan has been carried out. I have seen the true power of Trance, and once I have attained the power nessecary, I'll make sure that your race is wiped out, along with the rest of this miserable planet's inhabitants." I felt like letting the arrow go, I felt like seeing that horrible smile wiped off his face. But I couldn't. I knew that towards the end of his life, he would be repentant. I knew that killing him now would unbelievably screw up this world's fate.

"Chris, what are waiting for?" Eiko shouted.

"He can't do it." I heard Neil's voice. In this stand-off, I hadn't noticed everyone else arrive. Suddenly, everything happened at once. Kuja blasted at me with a spell, hitting me in the stomach. I was in unbearably agony, falling over backwards, only to see that at that instant a huge monster had appeared in the middle of the chamber. It was Meltigemini, and it was a truly terrifying sight indeed. In the next instant, it was hit by a blast of fire and a beam of light. The battle had begun, and I lay there helpless in a puddle of my own blood. I reached into by back pocket and pulled out a small potion emptying it's contents over the wound that covered most of my stomach. I felt it close slightly, torn vessels healing quicker than they naturally would. A few seconds later, Neil was crouched by my side.

"Jeez, you sure get yourself in trouble sometimes." He placed his hands over the wound and healed up most of it, leaving just a few streaks of scar tissue. "I'll sort that out later, it'll do for the moment."

"Thanks mate." I thanked him as I got up, just to see one of the Meltigemini's heads blown clean off by another blast from Vivi. Neil stood up and fired another Holy blast at the monster, removing it's other head.

After the battle had calmed, Kuja was no-where to be seen. Zidane was busy comforting Vivi and the other black mages, after discovering that there was no way to extend their lives. I sat down with them. Out of curiousity, I tried looking at Vivi's spiritual aura, and saw something quite fascinating. As he grew more and more depressed, his aura seemed to grow stronger with every second. It was almost as if he was growing a soul. I noticed this with most of the other mages around the room. It was quite amazing. I sat and thought about all that Kuja had said. How exactly could he destroy our race? Why didn't Vincent tell me that he'd met with Kuja? It was all getting more and more confusing by each event in my life.

There we go! It seems quite short to me, but now I'm back into the swing of things, expect an update sometime within the next week!


	24. Chapter 24: Finding The Answers

Disclaimer: Look at chapter 23.

Thanks if you you reviewed! I'm actually shocked that some of you actually waited for me to update! Anywho, i'm most likely to be back for good now. Also, on another note, I'm currently building a website where I'll be storing this fic too, along with anything else I feel like at the time. : ) I'll let you all know when that's finished. Right, on with the story!

_**Chapter 24: Finding The Answers**_

My first reaction was that I was going to die. That was before I realised that this was another dream, they'd been getting more and more real and terrifying. The sight I was currently greeted with was a huge warzone, explosions everywhere. A second later, I was in the heat of the battle, randomly fatal sounding projectiles flicking around me, taking out anyone who was lucky to get in their path. Shockwaves kept rippling through the ground beneath me, knocking me off my feet every now and then. I felt strangely calm, as though I subconsciously knew that I couldn't get hurt and/or killed. The battle seemed to be taking place between two main forces: one was wearing a deep black armour, decorated with symbols and runes; the other side were truly horrfic soildiers.

They looked human, execpt for the fact that their eyes seemed to have no life in them. I couldn't see any sign of a spirit in them, which was the thing that scared me most. Their weapons were quite intriguing too: a long blade attached to the forearm which seemed to have some sort of firearm embedded into the hilt. Kind of like a gunblade, but stuck to your arm. They were quite adept at both firing at long range targets, and eviscerating anything that got too close. The black armoured soldiers, on the other hand, seemed to prefer some sort of rifle, with a long black bladed sword in hilt at their side. Some had drawn them and were wielding them expertly at the enemy, some had stuck to the guns and were putting bullets (or whatever the hell they were firing) through their enemies. I found myself completely unarmed, so I tried firing a fire spell at the nearest blade armed person, hoping that they were the bad guys. Unsurprisingly, it went straight through it, not causing a scratch. I looked around through the smoke and screams, trying to find some sort of waypoint to go somewhere. It was then that I noticed the sprawling city ahead.

Saying that it was huge would be an understatement. It seemed to fill up the entire horizon, some buildings burning quite strongly from what seemed to be a type of artillery fire. In the centre was a huge beam of light reaching into the heavens, piercing through the smoke that choked the rest of the city. I figured that that was a big enough waypoint and started to head towards it. Before I knew it, my feet had left the floor and I was flying towards the light at top speed.

At that moment, my dream ended, and I awoke with a jerk. However, the surroundings were unfamiliar. I sighed as I realised that I was still dreaming and got up wearily. The room was quite clean, the window opened out onto a stunning view of the city I'd seen earlier. However, the battle looked like it hadn't even started yet, the skies were clear, showing a beautiful night sky, ablaze with stars. Suddenly there was a flash, and I was outside, in a field. I recognised this planet as Gaia, as I could see Treno in the distance, all lit up and glowing like a massive lamp. It was pretty dark, and it took me a moment to notice that I wasn't alone. There was a figure beside me, looking in confusion at the city a few miles away. I looked at this figure and noticed several astonishing things at once. First, she was definitely a human female, the clothing gave it away. She was wearing a short-ish black skirt, a purple top and a small black cap, something you don't normally see in Gaia. Secondly, she looked freezing cold, which wasn't surprising, as the temperature dropped considerably at night at this height. Thirdly, I noticed that we weren't alone either. Wispy figures had slowly faded into view around us, humanoid figures, with hidden faces. I wasn't the only one to notice this, as the girl looked around from figure to figure, moving backwards. I'd seen these things before, they were known as Wraiths, and I knew instantly that she was incredible danger. I looked around, noting that we were both surrounded and completely unarmed. I moved into a defensive posture, bringng my hands up ready to fight.

"What the?" The girl almost screamed in shock. "Where did you come from!" She was speaking English, but there was definitely something foreign sounding in her accent.

"You can see me?" I asked, shocked at the fact that I had suddenly become visible. This meant that I was also in danger, but at least I could protect her a little.

"Of course I can. Who the hell are you?"

"My name isn't important at the moment, but if you don't run, these things will more than likely rip your soul to shreds." I turned and blasted the nearest one to her with a ice spell, freezing it solid. I rammed into it's form with my shoulder and it shattered into tiny pieces. "Run!" She nodded, with a look of shock, confusion and fear on her face. I fired off another spell at one of the other wraiths, blasting it into mist. She ran through the gap I'd made, tripped up from rushing. I tried to help her up, but suddenly felt an extreme cold near the back of my neck. Instictively, I burst out a fire spell at whatever was behind me, only to turn around and find about three wraiths closing in on the girl. She clawed at them, trying to push them away, but started to look faint, her face incredibly pale. Whatever the hell the wraiths were doing, it couldn't be good. I felt the cold closing in, as some of the others lost intrest in her and turned to me. If I didn't pull off something drastic, we'd both die. Even if this was a dream, I didn't fancy having my soul being eaten by undead monsters. As I thought this, I felt the familiar warmth of a Trance coming on, filling every part of me with a new energy. I saw the wraiths stop for a second, in fear? Light blasted from me as I felt the transformation taking place. As I changed, some of the wraiths started to move in closer. This was a fatal mistake as I took out the nearest three with the strongest spell I could muster. I turned to the girl, who looked like she was staring at Death's door, and promptly smashed the attackers away in one fell blast. By the time a few seconds had passed, the wraiths had been completely and utterly annihalated. Reluctantly, I turned back into my normal self, moving to see what I could do to help this dying girl. I knelt down beside her, feeling her wrist for any sign of a pulse. There was a faint one, and there was definitely an aura about her. I looked to the city beyond. It was waaaay to far away, she'd be dead by the time I got there. I took a look around in the spirit realm and saw that there was a small aircraft there, almost as if it was waiting for me.

Flash. I was in a hospital, but this time I was outside my own body. I saw myself looking at a hospital bed where the mysterious girl lay, a machine counting the pulse and other vital signs beeping rhythmically. I watched myself sit down in a chair next to the bed and watched as a familiar figure came in and stood next to the machine.

"How is she?" Vincent said, looking at the readout on the machine, an eyebrow raised in intrest.

"Still sleeping. She got hurt pretty bad by those wraiths." I heard myself say. Out-of-body-experiences are so weird, I thought to myself as I watched Vincent take a greater interest in the readout, before tapping a few buttons.

"Well, you did all you could. Not many people survive an encounter with that many wraiths." He said, distracted by the readout on the machine. I moved in closer and saw a model of the girl's spirit, slowly turning from white to a grey-ish tint. "That's interesting." He muttered.

"What?" The other me got closer to the screen too.

"Normally, when a spirit is actually damaged by a wraith, it's condition begins to deteriorate, slowly vanishing completely. With this girl, it seems to be...bonding with the wraith infection. How rare." I didn't get to hear the rest as everything whited out.

"Bugger!" I shouted as I woke up. For once, a dream of mine was starting to get vaguely interesting, and it was cut short. As my mind slowly began to wake up, I started to think about what I'd just seen. Who was that girl? These dreams were getting weirder and weirder, I had to find some answers now, or I'd probrably go nuts!

After a quick trip on an airbus, I arrived at Lindblum Castle, where the others were waiting.

"Where've you been? You just missed the most important information yet!" Eiko jumped up and down.

"Meh, seen it all before. Kuja's from Terra, Shimmering Island, Ipsen's Castle, blah-de-blah." I repiled bluntly.

"We're heading out to Ipsen's Castle as soon as Zidane gets back with Dagger." Bruce informed me. I nodded, still kind of lost in my thoughts.

"_Worried about your dreams?" _Kirjava's voice popped into my head.

"_Yeah. I need to find out more, but I don;t know who to ask."_

"_Why don't you go to Zion? I'm sure Vincent could help you out."_

"_But we're going to Ipsen's Castle right?"_

"_You don't have to, I'll stay with them so you don't lose communication. There'll be a ship you can borrow in Zion to get back to us."_

"_You sure?"_

"_Yeah, go on. Someone's got to look after these idiots!"_

"_Thanks."_

"_No problem."_

"_Just one question."_

"_Fire away."_

"_...where the hell is Zion?"_

After following Kirjava's directions, I saw the huge city that sprawled out for miles. It was just like it was in my dreams, which was oddly shocking in itself. It meant that these dreams definitely meant something, and they weren't completely random like I first thought. Oddly enough, Zion was positioned exactly in the centre of the four continents of Gaia, only the spirit realm, there was a huge crater with the universe's largest city in the middle of it, instead of what many people think is an ocean. It had been a bit of a trek, but it was definitely worth it. It was absoultely magnificant, lit up in a blazing glory, as if the entire was constructed out of the finest crystal. The huge beam of light in the centre was still there, just like my dream said it would be.

I was about to step forward when a vehicle approached me. It looked much like a futuristic people carrier, black and silver, with a flaming eye on the side, just like the one on my pendant. It opened it's doors and revealed Vincent sat at the wheel, looking at me in surprise.

"Need a ride?"

Zion looked magnificant on the outside, but on the inside, words couldn't describe the beauty of the place. Vincent drove the car on a highway of some sort, leading directly to the centre of the city, towards the pillar of light. He flicked a button on the driver's display, which resembled something out of a sci-fi film. It seemed to be an autopilot of some sort, as he took his hands off the wheel and we didn't turn into a flaming pile of wreckage.

"So, these dreams you're having. How often are they occuring?" He enquired, looking at me with the utmost seriousness.

"Practically every time I fall asleep." I answered truthfully.

"And you say they show you events, like what?"

"Well, I saw this city being attacked by a huge army." He took a sharp intake of breath and his face paled slightly.

"What did this army look like?" He finally asked after a thoughtful pause.

"They had gunblades on their arms and had purple, dead looking eyes." I said, looking in puzzlement at the expression of shock on his face.

"Oh no. You'd better hope these dreams aren't what I think they are." He said as we approached a massive grand looking building. It had the international sign of a hospital above the main enterance.

Inside the hospital, we entered a very familiar looking room. It was exactly the same as the one I'd seen the comatose girl in in my dream. In fact, the machine was the exact same place, which shocked me.

"I've seen this room too." I told Vincent, and he nodded. He lead me over to the machine and sat me down. He placed a few plastic sensors on my forehead and flicked a switch on the machine. The screen glowed and said in big green lettering:

**Scan Mode Ready**

He looked me in the eye.

"This is going to feel a little strange." He pushed a button and suddenly images flashed before my eyes, images I had seen before. The city, the wraiths, the battle, fire, explosions, and finally the girl. With a jolt, I was brought back to reality. "Are you alright?" He asked, tapping a few more buttons on the machine.

"A little shaken, but otherwise fine." I replied. "What's going on?"

"I just scanned your mind for any signs of precognitive neurons." He pressed a couple more buttons and a diagram turned up on screen. "If you have any, then these dreams may have been premonitions."

"You mean I saw the future?"

"Well, yes and no. You saw some of the possible time strands that could happen. It's not yet certain whether they actually will."

"So, I might die in some the ways I saw?"

"It's a possiblity." That really cheered me up. Not only am I seeing my death over and over, but the though that it might _actually_ happen was almost to much to bear.

"Well, the machine picked up quite a few, which explains why they have been coming in dream form, instead of normal visons.

"Well, what do some of them mean?"

"The battle you saw is very worrying. It was almost a repeat of what happened over a hundred years ago."

"What happened?"

"The Great War happened, that's what. My brother brought an army against the spiritseers and practcally wiped us out. Those soldiers that you saw were known as Imaginary Numbers, clones of the human body, yet with no spirit. Practically zombies, incapable of independent thought."

"What about the girl?"

"Yes, that one is quite interesting." He brought up a still shot of her from my memory on the monitor. It wasn't a very good one, she looked terrified. "She looks very familiar, but I can't place my finger on where I've seen her before." He looked puzzled. "Anyway, I'll give you more information as I find it."

"Thanks. Just how do I get back to my friends?"

"Where are they?"

"They should be enroute to some of the elemental temples to unlock the Shimmering Island."

"Alright, I'll give you a lift." He looked at me with a slight smile on his face. "You're going to love this."

The airship "Thunderchild"shot out of Zion's airport at eye-bleedingly fast speeds. It was a beautiful ship: sleek black with sliver highlights, two engines burned icy blue out of the back, the wings spread out as it left the bay where it was parked, looking like some sort of huge falcon.

"Whoa!" I shouted as the ship tore through the air as if it wasn't there. _"Kirjava, where are you?"_ I sent my thoughts to my guardian as we broke through the sound barrier.

"_We're just approaching the Wind Temple, ETA about 6 minutes."_

"They're getting close to the Wind Temple. They'll be about 6 minutes." I relayed the message to my ancestor, who was looking the happiest I'd ever seen him. I guessed he like flying.

"Easy. Just hold on tight!" He shouted as he hit a switch on the flickering array of lights and controls. Instantly, the ship shot from the spiritual realm, and screamed into the material one. The sky was quite sunny at the moment, and the light glinted off the water. Vincent pressed another button and a huge map came up, filling the cockpit window.

"There we go." He pointed at a small point, titled "Wind Temple". The ship turned sharply and shot off in that direction.

There we go! That must be the longestbit of writing I've done in a looooong time. Update soon, big revelations in the next chappie!

Ulthran


	25. Chapter 25: The Elemental Mirrors

Disclaimer: See chapter 23

ACK! I've just realized how far I have left to go in this story! It's almost over (cries).

_**Chapter 25: The Elemental Mirrors**_

The sky was a eerie shade of crimson as I stood around waiting for Kirjava to pick me up. The evening was suitably warm, a stark difference to what I was used to. Usually I'd be standing around shivering instead.

"_Where abouts are you?"_ I heard her voice.

"Erm...well I'm close to a rock. A lot of rocks. Arranged in a canyon."He heard a noise nearby and saw her soaring over the cliff side in her usual dragon form, accompanied by Nova and Melissa. As they landed, I waved, walking towards them.

"Want to tell me what that was all about?" She asked, flicking her hair out of her face.

"I just needed some answers about these dreams I'm having."

"...and?"

"Well...it turns out they aren't actually dreams. They were visions of future events." She looked at me a little funny.

"The future? You mean you're clairvoyant?"

"Kind of. According to a scan I had, I had some cells in my brain that allowed me to see the future, but they only become active in the dream phase of sleep." She nodded.

"Makes sense. See anything with me in it?"

"No, not at all." I lied. I didn't have the emotional strength to tell her that I'd already seen her die on several occasions. I wanted to keep that inside my head, and never let it happen, no matter what it took. She looked at me, not really believing me.

"Ah it's okay, the future can stay where it is for the moment. I don't fancy having to look over my shoulder every time something happens that seems familiar. After this is over, I just want to relax knowing that what happens happens. There's not much I can do about it." She looked down at her feet and smiled.

"True, I wish I could do that."

Flying is always such a sensational experience. I don't mean the type of flying when you're stuck in a cabin in a big tin can, I mean flying in the open air, with the wind just swooshing by you. It feels like being set free from everything. The landscape far beneath us was pretty bleak, nothing but desert, cliffs and canyons, barely any life apart from the odd pack of monsters. Before long I could see the faint outline of the Hilda Garde 3 trying to get into a good position in front of the raging torrent of winds that encased the Wind Shrine. Sand was flying around everywhere as we desperately tried to get close to the ship, fighting against the hurricane strength torrent before coming down with a crash on the deck below. I shielded my eyes from the whipping sands, trying to see what was going on. Before, I could move, I saw the little figure of Vivi flying towards me. He looked a little surprised as he knocked me off my feet, sending me face first into the hard wooden floor. I rolled around a little, holding my nose and breathing hard to stop my eyes from watering.

"Bloody hell!" I shouted, as I saw something larger heading my direction, the size of a normal person sailing past me. In one heart-stopping moment, I saw what it was. It was Neil, flying head over heels with a huge lump of wood. I tried to grab out but he flew right over the edge, shouting as he went down.

"_We've gotta go after him!" _My mind shouted before realizing the dire situation around me.

"_That's suicide! We'd go down after him!" _I heard Kirjava shout into my mind. Before she could think another word, there was a bright flash of light. I shuddered a little under the wind, trying to see what had caused. Then the seconds shock of the moment hit me. There was a huge bird/dragon like creature hovering just behind the ship with a shining figure on it. Before I could figure out what it was, it disappeared, depositing the no longer shining figure on the deck.

"That was close!" I heard the familiar voice shout, just as I recognized who it was.

"Thank God, I thought you were a goner!" I shouted at Neil, relieved that he wasn't a crater several hundred metres below us. I was about to say something else before feeling the ship shudder under the horrific weight of the biting winds. He jumped and fought his way along the deck, joining Vivi and Steiner as they jumped off the edge and onto the front of the Wind Shrine. I waved as the ship pulled away, following the wind's path away from the shrine.

"What the hell happened back there?" I asked Melissa, sitting around on the deck with Quina and Zidane.

"No idea, but that definitely looked like a summon." She replied, looking over the edge as we soared towards the Earth Shrine. Zidane was checking through his stuff, checking one of his daggers for cracks. I decided to do the same, checking along the thin edge of the blade, still slightly dirtied with the blood of the last thing I attacked with it. I was a little sad about the lack of venom, but it would have to do. Next I checked my bow running my finger down the string, testing the tensity. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Melissa swung her katana around in a form of half practice, half concentration. I took this time to take a good look at her. The clothes she wore were pretty old, a black figure-hugging top with slightly baggy combat trousers. The blade she carried was quite impressive, gleaming in the setting sun. It had a black thorn pattern running up the blade, and cut through the air like a hot knife through butter. She smiled wryly

"Stop staring, you're making me nervous." She said, flipping the blade back into it's sheath, flicking her hair back into it's place and sauntering down to the front of the ship.

The Earth Shrine was completely silent, the air within musty and ancient. The dark corridor ahead looked quite foreboding, I couldn't tell how far it went on for, stretching on into the very bowels of Gaia.

"Watch the ceiling and the floor, people." I warned the others.

"What?" Zidane replied before realizing what I was talking about. I took a burst of speed forwards as the floor started to rise, with some chunks of the ceiling dropping, almost as if this forlorn corridor was _actually _trying to kill us. With that part of the shrine safely navigated, we moved on to the actual altar itself. It was well lit by torches hanging around, casting confusing shadows around the chamber. As Zidane pulled out the mirror and placed it on the altar, a terrifying monster popped down from the ceiling. It looked quite formidable, a long frayed red cloak hung loosely from it's skeletal shoulders. It's long bony fingers stretched outwards in a faint grasping motion as it descended ominously from the darkness above.

"Oh feck." I proclaimed in an annoyed manner. I was sick of fighting uber demons, couldn't we just have a nice fluffy bunny to fight?

"Kuja said there would be twelve of you little rats." He hissed in a vindictive voice.

"Wow, he can count." Melissa piped in, folding her arms.

"Aw, did you have a feast prepared?" Zidane followed suite.

"Don't worry, we eat all!" Quina waved her fork in a vaguely threatening manner.

"Ah, so you are trying to conquer all the shrines at once? How futile." It hissed again, moving forwards slightly.

"Well we'll just see about that." Zidane replied cockily.

"Must try eating before we give up!" Quina bounced with every word. The creature laughed, it's shrill unearthly voice grinding on my ears.

"What would you lower lifeforms possibly do on Terra?"

"Must eat to find out what taste good! Is my lesson from traveling around world!" Quina licked his/her lips in anticipation of a meal. It wasn't really going to do what I thought it was going to do? Suddenly, it pounced on the Earth Guardian, fork thrashing around madly. It barely had anytime to move before she/he had bitten it's arm right off. She chomped for a few seconds and jumped in again. The rest of us watched in awe as this blobby creature made a meal out of one of the ancient guardians of Terra. Quina finished and turned around to look at us.

"Hmmm, need salt." It commented, belching loudly.

After a quick pick-up, the Hilda Garde flew through the star-lit night towards the Shimmering Island. We had all gathered in the control room, listening to Zidane.

"Well, now we have everyone, we'll head to the Shimmering Island and..." He looked quite shocked to see Amarant there. "Amarant? You're coming with us?"

"So we'll go to the Shimmering Island, then Terra?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's near Esto Gaza, so it won't be far." Amarant paused for a second, and looked at Zidane inquisitively.

"Tell me, what motivates you to that?"

"Well, I want to find out what the heck Kuja's up to, and I guess I want to find out more about Terra."

"Can't resist the urge to step into another world huh?" He replied, a little smile on his face.

"What, you think I'm going there just to satisfy my curiosity?"

"Am I wrong?"

"No, I guess you're right." The group started moving off, and as I left the room, I heard Amarant thinking out loud.

"I'm beginning to understand why he won and I lost...I lost to his way of thinking."

The portal was spectacular, bright colours rising high into the night sky, setting the world ablaze with light. The ship careened towards it, being sucked towards the inexorable power emitting from it's centre.

"Bloody hell, that thing is huge!" I shouted over the racket of the wind. We all stood on the deck, staring at the magnificence before us.

"What the heck do we do?" Bruce shouted back.

"Well, maybe it's like the teleportation gates back at the Desert Palace?" Zidane replied.

"You're suggesting we _jump_ into that thing?" Bruce looked slightly pale. The ship was now right inside the swirling colours, the blindingly light portal beneath us.

"Ah, it's easy!" I shouted at the top of my voice. The next moment Zidane barreled over the edge of the ship, shouting with excitement as he went.

"_Oh well, we've nothing to lose!"_ I heard Kirjava from within my pendant. I shrugged and looked at Neil, Bruce and Melissa.

"Ready?" I said, grinning. With that said, we all dived overboard at the same time. The portal got closer and closer so fast, everything became a bright, colourful blur of light.


	26. Chapter 26: Don't Look Down

Disclaimer: Check the other chapters!

Ah, the end of a nice two week holiday from college. What better way to end it than to continue the adventures of Chris and the gang!

_**Chapter 26: Don't Look Down**_

I groaned as I wearily opened my eyes to a soothing brilliant sapphire light, gradually climbing to my feet from the cold hard ground. I glanced cautiously around, surveying the landscape surrounding the site where I had miraculously appeared. The world around me seemed alien, more alien to me than Gaia had seemed at first.

"_Any idea where the hell we are?" _I asked Kirjava, getting more and more confused by the second. I couldn't see any sign of intelligent lifeforms, which was as good as it was bad. At least I wasn't going to get eaten by some wacky monster with a thousand eyes.

"_Well, I'm certain were on Terra." _She responded from my pendant, sounding just as confused as I was.

"_I knew that, just where about are we, and where the heck is everyone else?"_

"_I don't know! I'm trying to pick up Nova, but he isn't anywhere nearby." _I took this as a bad sign. The teleportation procedure had been quite disorienting. I had no idea how long I'd been out for, or how far away I'd landed from the others. Kirjava burst from my pendant, which never ceased to be a strange sight. Seeing a 10 foot dragon pop out of something about 10 centimetres across can do that to you. I saw her line of thought, if we were higher maybe we could spot them. However, there hundreds of city-sized platform-like structures in the immediate area, and that wasn't counting the ones further away. It would be like looking for a pack of needles in a decent sized green belt. (AN: if you don't know what a green belt is, it's an area of countryside surrounding cities to stop urban crawl. They're pretty big!) I climbed onto her back and we shot off into the sky. It was at this point I looked down and saw a vertigo-inducing drop that seemed to go on indefinitely. This seemed to be the source of a colossal blue light, easily comparable to a small star.

"Whoa, that's a _long _way down." I understated as we glided through the air quite effortlessly. The platforms were distanced quite evenly, and each one seemed to have a village surrounded by an area of wilderness, some of which didn't have any sign of life. Anyone of them could have been Bran Bal, it was almost pointless searching until I heard faint sounds of clanging. I quickly scoured the area, unable to see the source of this noise. It was then I heard an explosion and I knew something was going on. We suddenly flew upwards, as Kirjava had been floating towards the underside of one of the huge platforms. I saw a quick glimpse of something, a flash of light blue in the distance. I dismissed it as a trick of the eye, since there was so much blue light around. It wasn't long before we were above the platform and I could clearly see what was making all the noise. Neil was busy hacking away at some jelly-like creatures and some vicious red balls were attacking Bruce. Kirjava dove down, allowing me to start firing some spells at the multi-eyed jellies, one evaporating in the wake of a combined ice and fire attack. Neil looked up before obliterating another behind him with a Holy spell. I heard a squelch as Bruce placed his sword right through one of the assaulting balls, slicing it clean in half. All that remained a few minutes later were quivering remnants of jelly, and a bit of scorched earth. Bruce sat down by an alien looking tree, resting for a second, while we landed in a clearing in front of them, kicking up a little dust in the draft of wind.

"Nice of you to join us." Neil remarked wittily, wiping the gunk of his machete-like blade.

"You seen the others anywhere?" I replied.

"Nah, they'll be near Bran Bal...wherever that is." He looked around at the platforms, sighing in frustration.

The terrain wasn't that bad to walk on, much of it seemed to be paved anyway, but it wasn't that long before we came across a colossal castle of some sort.

"Pandemonium." I whispered breathlessly. It was truly a sight to take your breath away, almost as spectacular as Zion, huge turrets spiraled high into the very heavens themselves. I knew that an event of great importance would take place here, and it was that which I planned to change, otherwise my plan would fail, and a life would be lost needlessly.

I took a step forwards, but a sudden sensation shot through me. A terrible ringing began in my ears...no, not in my ears, but in my very thoughts. A sudden flash of emotion came over me...terror, an unbearable terror. I clasped my hands over my head and dropped to my knees. I felt my very existence bursting in agony, tears ran from my eyes. I let out a gasp of shock as a new emotion filled my mind. Emptiness, acceptance, confusion, all flying though my mind like a tornado. It stopped as suddenly as it had started, leaving my mind blank as a new leaf of paper.

"You okay?" Bruce asked, pulling me to my feet.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked, wiping the moisture from my cheeks.

"_S-something is wrong." _Kirjava sounded terrified. "_Something horribly wrong has just happened, and I think it has something to do with Zidane."_ Of course! Zidane must've just met Garland, and had his soul removed. It must have been so horrible that the psycho-shock of the event must have emitted from him, causing me to feel what he was feeling. That would explain why I was affected, but the others didn't notice. It was horrible, which only forced me onwards. If that had just happened, I needed to get there and fast to stop the next event, otherwise it would all go horribly wrong...

Inside the castle, the air was hot and humid, like a greenhouse on a summer's day. The surroundings were dark and dank, putrid dark steam rose from the obsidian pipes that adorned the place, their purpose unknown. We moved on, sticking in a tight group, the odd whimper arising from Kirjava every now and then. This place was scaring her, and therefore it was scaring me.

"_This is just wrong." _She whispered, a small pearly-white dove on my shoulder.

"_Why are you so scared?" _I asked, watching for any sign of hostile movement.

"_There are souls here. Dark souls, resting in an eternal slumber. I can feel their consciousness, sense their thoughts. Believe me, they ain't thinking about cute little bunnies on a wide open meadow. All they can concentrate on is the assimilation of Gaia, and it's frightening."_ I shook my head.

"_Don't worry about that. It can't be that scary!"_

"_It's not that that scares me the most. Try looking at the spirit realm." _I rolled my eyes and took a look. It couldn't be that bad, could it?

Oh, how I was wrong.

The biggest concentration of wraiths I had ever seen engulfed the entire castle, floating around, watching and waiting. I switched my vision back to normal in a hurry, feeling the colour drain from my face. If I got into a battle and tried to escape into the spirit realm...well, it wouldn't be pretty, that was for sure.

"Jeez, you look like you've just seen a ghost." Neil commented, glancing at me before going back to checking for enemies.

"You don't know the half of it." I replied, before suddenly hearing roaring in the distance. We hurried on silently, towards the source of the tremendous sound.

In the middle of a large area of pipes stood Zidane, facing off against the largest, most evil-looking turtle I had ever seen in my entire life. It's shell looked strong enough to survive a nuclear blast, let alone a dagger stab, and vicious magma eyes glared from above it's horrifying fanged mouth. It swiped down at the forlorn Zidane, a visibly weakened man, a crimson trickle making it's way down his face from a nasty gash above his eyebrow. His chest had been torn to pieces, cuts & deep wounds all over the place, oozing even more claret. He even seemed to have difficulties breathing as the claw loomed closer and closer.

Without even thinking, I took bow in hand and lined up a shot on the monster's sickening face. Letting loose, the arrow dug into it's head, causing it to roar with a cry that shook the very walls. However, this had distracted it's claw, as it turned laboriously to look in our direction. Bruce whooped in a very loud war-cry before charging, claymore flashing straight towards the monster. I took the time to notice Zidane drop to the floor, writhing slowly in agony. Out of the shadows stepped the lone figure of Dagger, who rushed over to catch her lover. She looked down at him and then looked at Neil and myself in desperation. He got the hint and went over to see how he could help, while I drew another arrow, lining this one up with it's eyes. I released the arrow, at the same moment that Bruce cut a gash in the same area. The arrow hit the left eye, a disgusting splat sound accompanied another earth-trembling roar. At that instance, Bruce was bathed in light, the familiar sight of a Trance. His alter-ego looked as scary as ever, black scales formed a strong armour around him, black torn wings erupted from his spine, looking like a rather painful process. He stood, breathing deeply for a moment, before unleashing the most awesome-looking sword combo I had ever seen. The blade moved so fast that my eyes didn't even have chance to catch up with it before it struck again. This amazing attack was accompanied with ear-splitting cracks. It was only until after he had stopped that I saw that there was practically nothing left of the monster's head. I watched agape as Bruce slowly turned back into his normal form. I ran over to where Neil and Dagger were working on Zidane. He groaned, looking up at her eyes.

"Dagger?" He spluttered a little blood as Neil working on the wound currently flooding his lungs with claret.

"You try to do everything by yourself, don't you?" She looked him back, holding his broken arm.

"Try to understand... I don't want to cause any trouble to anyone." He replied, shuddering a little.

"Aren't we your friends?" She shook him slightly. He shook his head.

"I want to think so! That's why I always... Look, I'm not from Gaia. I was just a hairbreadth from destroying Alexandria! I can't accept your friendship so easily!"

"Oh c'mon, that isn't the Zidane we know and love." I responded, frowning slightly. "Surely you understand why destiny shunned you when picking out the angels of death? Everything that happened so far has been carefully scripted. You can't say that just because you _could_ have been in Kuja's place, it means that you may have been responsible! You are different, I can see that, Dagger can see that, why can't you?"

"You've always protected us. But you still don't understand that we looked out for you, too! We watched your back while you watched ours. And we believed in you the same way you believed in us! Just like you protected us... We want to protect you." Dagger chipped in. Zidane tried to stand up, his wounds healing at a heightened speed. Just then, the large door at the back of the chamber slid open, revealing a bouncy Quina and an out-of-breath Steiner.

"You say it! My master tell me, somebody give you tasties, you give them tasties, too. Is good manners! I still not cook you succulent frog yet, Zidane." Quina nodded with practically every word, as if it were to emphasize the point. Zidane looked speechless, he tried to say something, but Steiner cut in.

"Chivalry requires a knight to look after his comrades-in-arms. I will not abandon you! And I shall follow you to kingdom come if I must. You remember that!" He pointed an armoured finger in Zidane's direction. Zidane smiled. "Ha, what am I gonna do with you guys?" At that, both Steiner and myself responded.

"The feeling's mutual!"

"Jesus, that was sad." Neil looked at me, shaking his head.

"Hey, I can have a little fun can't I?" I grinned.

After a short reunion, we found ourselves climbing higher and higher in the sprawling castle, up towards the tallest part.

"Damn it, why are there so many wraiths?" Melissa cursed after checking the spirit realm again. I was about to answer when I noticed the light. We had finally reached the top of the castle and were out in the open. The view was stunning, the whole of Terra sprawled out in front of us, platform after platform, village after village. At the very edge stood a dark clothed figure, his aged bald skull glinted in the sapphire light of Gaia's life. He seemed to vaguely notice us, but didn't turn to meet us.

"There's the observatory, when you told me you would be my angel of death. Zidane, I will ask one final time...who are you?" His cracked voice questioned the defiant genome that stood behind him.

"You're a sad sad man Garland, we have friends who help us. That is reason enough for us to live." Zidane shouted at Garland, understanding in his voice. Garland turned to look at us, and I became aware of a swishing sound.

"Then show me, lecture me when you are on the verge of death!" The swooshing noise got louder and a silver dragon descended from the sky, it's feathery coat flickering in the wind it was making. It screamed at us, and I could hear the faint sound of Garland laughing. "I was created to oversee Terra, I exist to await a time when this world is without life and death." The small red core of his armour glowed menacingly to emphasize his words. "I am absolute controller of this planet!" The dragon dove towards us and we scattered, running all over the place in a desperate attempt to avoid being clawed to pieces. Suddenly, a black flash shot into the side of the attacking beast. It took a moment for me to recognize that it was Nova. Kirjava took off from my shoulder, reforming her dragon form.

"_We'll handle the dragon, you take on Garland!"_ She ordered me, and I nodded in agreement. Kirjava pounded into the other side of the dragon, smashing it into the floor. It swung around, pushing up from the ground and crashed into the side, knocking him away. The battle got higher and higher, and I winced in pain as the silver beast struck Kirjava with his lethal-looking claws, drawing blood from her back. I was so busy watching the battle above that I was completely oblivious to the battle raging right next me. It was only when I realized my arm was on fire that it dawned on me that I should really be paying attention to what was happening. "Yah!" I jumped in shock, only to over-react and freeze my poor arm in a casing of ice. It was at that moment that I noticed the shadow growing beneath me and quite wisely decided to get out of the way. Moments later, a black blur pounded into the ground, accompanied with a feminine scream to my left. Nova wasn't looking in too good shape, one of his feathery wings was bent in a way that it really shouldn't have been.

"_Ow..."_ I heard him mutter, before just laying unconscious. Just then, I heard Garland shout out in pain. Freya had just shoved her spear clean through his gut. I another blast of pain burst into me, this time on my neck. I looked up, gazing in horror as the dragon latched it's jaw onto Kirjava's neck, blood tainting the pure white feathers. What the monster didn't realise is that it gave her the perfect shot at it's back. There was a blast of white light that cascaded out of her mouth, blowing the beast's spinal column to bloody chunks. It went limp instantly, relieving it's grip on her throat. She landed next to it's fallen corpse, panting out of exhaustion, before vanishing back into my pendant. My throat still felt like there was a wasp's nest attached to it, but I'd live with it. I went over to Nova, vaguely aware of conversation in the fighting group behind me. He was still out for the count, so I looked around for Melissa, spotting her lying down completely unconscious near to where Garland was currently groaning. Zidane was down next to Garland, talking with him when suddenly he started to glow bright red.

"What the--" Zidane was cut off by the sight a gargantuan vehicle rose up next to the castle. The Invincible, formidable from a distance, was truly a breath-taking sight up close. In fact, it was the kind of sight that makes grown men drop into a foetal position and suck their thumbs in sheer insanity. If I hadn't of known what was coming next, I probably would have dropped dead with shock. It just hovered there, making a surprising small humming sound. I watched and waited as ancient glowing symbols appeared at the edge of the platform next to Garland, causing Zidane to jump backwards in surprise. A faint laughter echoed through the air as the all-to-familiar figure emerged from the portal.

"I truly love you all, You not only broke the seal to Terra, but you also did me the favor of defeating Garland!" Kuja was beside himself with joy.

"Smug bastard." Neil muttered just audibly.

"What are you doing here Kuja!" Zidane shouted threateningly.

"Oh now come on, that's no way to greet your brother." He seemed to put great emphasis on the "brother", smiling tauntingly. Zidane shook his head.

"You're no brother of mine." Kuja crouched down next to Garland, taking the weakened man's head into his hands, so he could stare him right in the face.

"Such ferocity...he intends to take on Terra, _Master _Garland." He uttered mockingly.

"What are you scheming Kuja?" He spluttered back. Kuja grinned at this, stepping up and turning to us.

"Me? Watch as I destroy the enemies of Terra!" He pulled his arms back and drew up power for a spell, his arms glowing menacingly. Freya jumped forwards swiftly, swinging the long decorated spear into place, aiming for Kuja's head. Before she could hit him though, he swung his left hand into her, blasting her backwards with a puff of light into the wall several metres behind her. On seeing this, Steiner and Amarant struck forward, but they hit nothing but air as he vanished, re-appearing behind them, throwing Steiner up in the air in a magical explosion that caused the very ground beneath us to ripple slightly. He soared through the air, almost in slow motion, before colliding heavily with the floor, his armour crunching on impact. Amarant was swift enough to avoid the explosion but as he thrust forward with his glinting claw, Kuja stepped aside and brought his hand down on his neck, almost without any effort at all. Bruce swung his claymore about as Amarant hit the deck, the blade flying towards the genome's unprotected head from above. Kuja swung about and dodged this attack with ease, charging up and firing a powerful flare spell into him, flinging him backwards onto the ground. Vivi and Neil and myself fired up various offensive spells at him, only for him to perform a simple hand movement and reflect them back at us. I dived towards the floor, in a desperate attempt not to get blown to pieces by the explosive spell I'd thrown at him moments before. As I hit the floor, I span in mid-air to look behind me. Neil rolled to the side, avoiding the Holy spell he'd fired, but Vivi wasn't so lucky, as his icy spell froze him to the wall behind him.

Neil ran forward, wielding the machete at Kuja, but he dodged aside. Again, Neil ducked to the side to avoid a spell fired at near point-blank range. As he dodged, he threw a punch at the genome with his spare hand, hitting him square in the face. Kuja reeled, crimson blood now trickling from his nose. Neil swung the blade again, aiming for his neck, but Kuja caught the machete between his palms, kneeing him in the stomach and throwing him down. I ran forward as he lowered his hand to fire a spell into his prone body, tearing the knife from it's sheath and ramming it straight into his back. He yelped in shock, and swung around, whacking me in the face and knocking me away. He turned to me, arm out ready to fire off another spell, but I noticed that his spiritual aura was growing stronger by the second, getting brighter and brighter.

"Oh crapola." I gasped, knowing all-too-well what was coming next. Kuja was engulfed in a stunning bright light, his body rising into the air. I swung around to the few remaining members of the party. "Get down!" I shouted as I heard a massive whooshing sound from behind me. Bright shafts of pinkish light flew up from the ground, soaring past Kuja into the sky. I looked up, desperately thinking of a way to avoid what could be my death, watching numbly as the beams of light shot straight towards us. I looked around once again, thinking of anything, but nothing was coming to me. I just saw Melissa's prone body laying on the floor near to where I stood. If one of those beams hit directly...it was almost too much to think about. With no better ideas springing to mind, I dived over her, covering her as best I could from the imminent blast. I clenched every muscle in my body as the I felt the tremendous strength of the explosion hit me, the deafening blast threatening to rip apart my eardrums, and flung both of us high into the air. I grabbed her and closed my eyes, waiting breathlessly for the end.

It didn't come.

Instead, I felt the massive pain of the ground, something in my ribcage cracked loudly. The worst was yet to come though, as somehow we had become separated in mid-flight, and she landed with her full weight on top of my back. I felt something else break deep inside, I gritted my teeth to stop myself from yelling in agony. Moments passed, moments drifted into minutes, and all I could sense was the incredible ringing in my ears. I felt something move, the heavy weight on top of me lifting away, allowing my poor lungs to breath. I tried to get up, my head felt like it was going to spin off my shoulders any minute. My legs refused blatently to move, and there was a strange sensation in my left arm. I opened my eyes and noticed that little amber flames were licking their way up my sleeve. I shook it around weakly, smacking it against the floor with whatever strength was left in my body. The ringing was starting to subside as I felt Melissa shake my shoulders.

"Hey Chris, wake up lazy bones." She coughed, I turned over so I could see her. Her face was a bit cut in places, but other than that she looked fine.

"Hey, what's with the wake up call?" I smiled weakly.

"You didn't have to look out for me."

"Didn't have to, but I wanted to. You would have done the same for me...if you were as nuts as I am." She half laughed, half coughed. A little bit of blood trickled out of her mouth. I heard a faint laughing in the distance. I closed my eyes in frustration.

"Doesn't he ever give up?" I muttered, trying once again to climb to my feet, this time getting up rather well. There was a horrible pain in my chest every time I breathed, and my arm felt broken, but apart from that, I would live. Kuja was standing by Garland, who was miraculously still in one piece.

"Yes! This is the power I've longed for! The mighty power of souls! They assault any threat that tries to destroy them!" He was breathless with excitement. I looked around, spotting Zidane crouched by Dagger. Looks like he'd had the same idea I had, as he looked way worse than she did.

"Wh-what do you mean?" He spluttered. I decided to butt in at this point.

"It's just like a normal Trance, but it was artificially encouraged, instead of the normal burst of emotion that usually initiates a Trance. He used spiritual energy drawn from the Invincible to initiate a stronger version of Trance, spirits drawn up from some of the most destructive moments of it's history." I explained, still wheezing for breath. Kuja clapped mockingly.

"Well done, not bad deduction from such a young mind."

"Who said anything about figuring out your plans? I've known them for at least a year now. But nothing is going to hit as to what's coming next." I retorted, smiling slightly. Now it was his turn to look confused.

"What, you mean my plans to rule Terra and Gaia with my unconditional love?" He laughed.

"No...the bit where you die." I raised an eyebrow and helaughed again, his voice ringing out over the silence that now engulfed the area. Anyone still conscious was transfixed.

"I... die? How comical of you to say that with such a look of pain on your face. It's over, _you _lose."

"Garland, I think you're going to have to tell your little angel about that secret you've been carrying around." I told the weak man kneeling by Kuja's feet.

"The child is correct, Kuja." Kuja rolled his eyes and turned to him.

"Master Garland, you of all people should be able to accept defeat gracefully." He kicked him viciously in the stomach. Garland yelped and fell backwards, gasping for breath. "How pitiful, any last words?" Garland looked at me, and a strange mutual understanding seemed to pass between us. We shared a common enemy, that much he knew, but not even my closest friends knew what trick I had tucked up my sleeve for later. He looked Kuja in the eye.

"You're power...is meaningless." He panted. Kuja remained deadly silent, before kicking the dying man one last time, knocking him over edge and down the bottomless drop, screaming all the way. He stayed silent for a minute and then walked calmly over to me. I barely realised I was smiling as he grabbed my roughly by the collar and held me up in the air.

"Hey, get off him!" Melissa went to attack, but Kuja seemed to brush her aside. Maybe I'd wound him a little too much?

Nah.

"Now should I kill you slowly, or should I make it quick to show my appreciation for all the help you've given me? Oh, maybe I should use you to decorate my castle to show my eternal kingdom?" I suddenly felt a little strange, something was in my mind, something that wasn't supposed to be there. Suddenly, my mind went completely blank, and I felt my mouth moving without any orders from my brain.

"You could never build an eternal kingdom." The voice that came out was not my own, but someone else's. It felt so strange, yet a little voice at the back of my head told me that everything would be alright. Kuja looked at me, a little puzzled.

"That voice...Garland? Did you leave something behind?"

"You think a defect like you could last forever?" I felt Garland's thoughts flying around my head, I thought I'd better let him have his fun. This just made it more easy for me later.

"What are you saying? Is being in someone else's head messing with your thoughts a little? Are you perhaps implying that I am simply a mortal?"

"I built you to last only until Zidane came of age. It was too dangerous to let you last longer than that." This seemed to hit Kuja harder than anyone could have punched him. He laughed nervously.

"What an interesting lie! You're telling my life will end soon?" He laughed again, this time his voice was quavering slightly.

"You were created to destroy. You are a mortal." I felt Garland's thoughts fade away, leaving me with only my own terrified brain repeating "_Oh my god."_ over and over again in an endless loop.

"A mortal?" He shook his head. "Why should I believe you? Now that I'm more powerful than anyone else I'm going to...die?"

"How ironic." I replied, my chest really hurting now. "You're going to die just like the black mages that you despise." He looked at me angrily.

"I won't let it happen, I won't let this world exist without me!" He lifted me higher and took off, rising into the air. He shouted angrily and tossed me aside, as if I weighed nothing. I scrabbled around in the air and had the most horrifying slow motion look at the roof of the castle before soaring right off the side. I prayed for some miracle, and my hand caught on something, a decorated ledge protruding from the side of the building. I grasped at it, swinging full speed into the wall, banging hard into the cold solid surface. I held on tightly, as I felt the shudder of explosions going off everywhere. Kuja was really smashing the life out of Terra, and a lot of the ultima blasts were hitting Pandemonium, blowing chunks clean out of it. I lost my grip and fell, luckily landing on a balcony several feet beneath me. I limped inside and climbed down the tower, hoping to try and catch up with the others. Every minute, the shuddering and rocking would intensify, as if the tower itself was about to collapse in on itself. I started to run as fast as my buggered legs would carry me, tripping up occasionally. I reached the bottom of the castle and saw Quina looking at some sort of eyeball at the top of a puzzle we'd solved earlier. She jumped up on it and licked it, suddenly vanishing from sight. "What the hell?" I muttered to myself, investigating this eyeball myself. I looked at it, and jumped in surprise as it looked back at me, blinking occasionally. I reached out gingerly and prodded it, wondering whether or not it was some kind of button. My stomach turned as the world around me turned a blinding white and I had the sensation of flying while standing still.

Just as sudden as it began, the world around me returned, blinking back into existence. I blinked a few times to regain my vision, before staring in awe at what was before me. The inside of the Invincible was even more awe-inspiring than the outside, if that was even possible. Almost everything glowed, pulsed, or flickered, the walls were coloured a light green-ish colour. I looked at my feet, and sure enough, there was a teleporter pad there, it's colour fading away. I looked down the stairway nearby, seeing a darkened room at the end, contrasted against the light glowing of the rest of the chamber. Inquisitive, I limped down and found that it was the control panel for the huge weapon beneath the ship, the blinking eyeball that had ravaged Maiden Sari, Alexandria, and Bahamut. There was an overwhelming presence here, a great flow of spiritual essence that seemed to fill the very air with energy. I was too tired to continue my wandering, so I slumped down wearily in the corner and closed me eyes, slumber soon taking me.

Wow, that was a biggy. A full five and a half pages of size 10 Franklin Gothic Medium. Alas, it is rather late (why does that clock say 2:15am?) and I am weary. Until next time, I bid you farewell. Sleep tight! Make sure you review, or I'll hunt you down and point this rather handy pulse rifle at you!

Ulthran: Commander of the Spiritseers  
"_Death is just the beginning!"_


	27. Chapter 27: The Fatal Decision

Disclaimer: Check the other chapters for legal info.

Yes, I am aware that the formatting in the previous chapter is shot to buggery, but there's nothing I can do about it. Hopefully, I should have a website up soon where I can post all of this stuff without having to worry whether the formatting is going to stab me in the back. Oh well, I just hope this one doesn't cock up, as it is VERY important!

_**Chapter 27: The Fatal Decision**_

_Thick green tendrils swarmed all over the moss-covered living chamber, writhing around me like a a singular mass of life. I watched with numb shock and horror as they started to move faster and faster, swelling into a whirl of vines, before ploughing straight into my unprotected body, smashing me against the wall, ejecting all life from my broken shell._

Again, I awoke in a cold sweat, the only sound I could hear was the steady throbbing hum of the Invincible. I didn't know how long I'd been out, but realised the floor around me was soaked in my own crimson blood, like a someone had spilt a bottle of red wine onto the floor. It was perfectly understandable, I hadn't bothered to tend to my wounds since that battle on Pandemonium, so it was inevitable that I'd have lost quite a bit of blood in my sleep. I climbed wearily to my feet, only to realise that something was missing, something vital. I turned around and saw that I'd left my body behind. Panic wrapped itself around my thoughts. Had I died in my sleep, and not realised it? Relief flooded through me as I noticed that my body was still breathing steadily, just as if I was asleep. I wasn't dead, which is always a positive point.

I decided that I'd better let myself rest up, and have a little wander around this ship. I was quickly shocked by just how big this aircraft was, almost the size of a small town, in all it's shiny glory. It appeared to have been constructed out of a surface not unlike some sort of metal. However, instead of the icy touch of steel, it instead felt warm, as if it was alive somehow. It was quite impressive, much better than the technical ingenuity that most technicians from Earth were capable of, with our sleek steel aeroplanes and samey road vehicles.

If only the two worlds could come together somehow, maybe then some pretty exciting achievements would take place.

I told myself to stop daydreaming about ideas that could never possibly come to fruition. Our worlds were separated by an immovable wall of non-existence, it could never happen. I sighed, which was pretty pointless seeming I'd left my lungs back near the weapon controls panel, and carried on my exploration. It wasn't long before I could hear faint voices over the organic thrumming of the ship. This was confusing, normally I couldn't hear anything going on the material realm while I was in the spirit realm. Unless the occupants of the bridge were dead, I was still in the material realm. I guess that explained ghost sightings then, spirits still in the material realm. Inquisitive, I crept towards the bridge, which again was pointless, because I wasn't making a sound in the first place. This was going to take some getting used to...

"Don't you see? Our altitude is not very high, and this all we can see!" Steiner was gesturing out of the panoramic window at the forefront of the bridge, where there was nothing but thick flickering clouds.

"Then what could it be?" Zidane replied, scratching his shin in thought. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

"It's Mist, what we black mages are made out of...and what used to cover the Mist Continent." Vivi explained, there was a deadly silence in the room, everyone was putting two and two together.

"The Mist...has covered all of Gaia." Dagger was the first to break the silence, her chocolate-brown eyes wide in shock. Zidane shook his fist, visibly angry.

"Why? How? Kuja, what are you planning now?" He shouted in pure frustration.

"How the hell did he survive Terra exploding?" Bruce piped up from the front, just in front of the strange movement-sensitive control panel.

"Well he is pretty powerful, now that he's gone super trance on us all." Neil answered, looking at the windscreen like there was something preoccupying his mind. Something was a little more sombre in this room, it hadn't been in the game. What had changed?.

"Even with all his power, it's hard to believe he escaped Terra's destruction unscathed." Freya pointed out.

"He's almost too powerful now, we've already lost one of us to that strength." Amarant replied. Lost someone? I looked around to see who was missing before the explanation hit me smack in the face.

"I couldn't do anything..." Melissa whispered, her voice cracking at the emotion of it all. "I should of cut that bastard's arms off, but I couldn't. It's my fault Chris is dead." My brain, if it had been present, would have died at that precise moment. All they had seen was me fly over the edge of Pandemonium, I hadn't had chance to meet up with them. How could I have been so stupid? And now she was going through all that heartache for...wait a second. It wasn't like Melissa to start crying like that, and she must have seen friends die all the time while see was a bounty hunter, why was she so hurt by my death?

"Well it's good to know people liked me a little bit." I interrupted, causing the most humorous display of shock ever. Zidane jumped at least 3 feet into the air, Steiner started running around the room searching for the source of the sound, Eiko jumped into Dagger's arms and even Amarant looked a little surprised. It took me a second to realise that although they could hear me, they couldn't actually see me. In fact the only person who could see me jumped to her feet and ran for me at top speed. "Whoa, don't try and---" I tried to stop her, but I was too late. Melissa jumped at me, arms spread out to hug me, but instead fly straight through me and hit the wall behind me. "...hug me." I finished, as she slid down the wall in true cartoon style, whimpering a little.

"Well, that was random." Neil noted. All he'd seen was Melissa run at a wall.

"Erm, I tried to warn you." I thought about it for a second before remembering something. Back when Alexandria was being attacked by Mistodons, Vincent had asked us to bring him into the material realm. I wonder if I could do that now? I concentrated, thinking about making myself solid, and I guessed it worked from the reaction it provoked.

"Whoa!" Bruce shouted out in shock.

"I take it you can see me now?" I asked, most nodded back. Melissa scrambled back to her feet, and grabbed me.

"I'm so sorry. I should have done someth--" She started crying again.

"Hey whoa there! Who said anything about me being dead? My body's having a nap downstairs in the weapon's control room."

"But Kuja threw you over the edge of the tower, how the heck did you survive the drop?" Zidane asked.

"Yeah, that hurt a little, lucky there was a balcony there really." I shrugged. Everyone stared at me speechlessly. "...What?"

The Black Mage Village was as peaceful as ever, the stream trickled carefree under the bridge. I leant against barrier, watching as the odd minnow swam past, the sunlight shimmering of it's shiny body. The wind was just nice, providing a cool breeze to ease the heat here. This place seemed to be completely unaffected by the blanket of Mist that covered the planet, as if the magic that the mages were emitting was keeping the village in an eternal stasis that never changed. I looked at the genome that stood next to me, looking confused at the water.

"What's up?" I asked the young-looking male.

"Does the water here ever stay still?"

"Well, water follows the pull of gravity, so it flows in that direction." I pointed down the stream, towards the sea. "It'll have come from the mountains over there, and the flow of water and gravity will be pushing it towards the sea." He carried on looking at the water, his eyes filled with puzzlement.

"The water on Bran Bal always stayed still." He replied.

"That's because there was nowhere for it to flow to. It was like a little lake up there." I looked back at the water. "Water flows just like time, unstoppable in it's path. No matter what happens, it keeps on flowing, even if there's a wall in the way, it'll find a way. It's...inevitable." My thoughts had been dwelling on my premonitions recently. If they were truly visions of my death, then how could they be stopped? Time stops for no man, I had always been told as a child, what happens happens, there's nothing we can do about it. If that was so, how could I change my own destiny? It was like watching a play, it always goes on a set path, and nothing could change it. No matter what happened, that final curtain was always going to drop when the bad guy was defeated, and the hero saves the girl. Is that how my life is going to end, making everything I do to try and stop it ultimately pointless? I suddenly got a glimpse of how Kuja felt, knowing that he was going to die soon. It was unbearable.

"So both water and time flows on Gaia? The genome looked at the water as if he finally understood it's way of life. I heard a noise behind me, and turned to see Amarant and Freya.

"Looks like they're off to a good start." She said to us, Amarant made a sound of disapproval.

"It's like watching kids play." He muttered, looking down at the light dancing through the leaves.

"It's not their fault, how would you be if you grew up without being shown how things work?" I replied, looking back at the genome poke at the water with a stick, watching the patterns it caused in the flow of the water with great interest.

"They've only just begun to live their lives." Freya added, looking almost sorrowfully at the genome, who jumped when he poked a minnow with the stick, observing it jump out of the water, landing with a light "splish". Amarant shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Can lost time be recovered?"

"Who knows? All we can do is protect them from anyone who would take away their right to the time they have left." Freya moved on, heading towards the village's entrance. Amarant pondered this for a second before waving dismissively at me and followed Freya. I looked back at the genome and started to follow.

"You're problem is just like the flow of water and time..." He said, stopping me in my tracks.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"...it can't be stopped..." He picked up a rock and dropped it into the stream, watching as the stream ran to the left and carried on. "...but it's path can be changed." He looked at me. I was dumbfounded as to how the genome knew about my premonitions, but I nodded.

"I hope you're right." I answered before moving on.

I stood watching the looming silhouette of the Iifa Tree grow in the setting sun, the huge glowing ball of purple and pink energy sat on top ominously. Zidane moved his hands around, standing on the pilot's control panel as he guided the ship towards Memoria. I took my dagger out, noticing that the crimson blood that was drawn from Kuja's back was still on it. I felt sorry for the guy, he grew up being told that destroying everything in sight was a good thing. Anybody influenced like that while growing up would have been the same. The poor guy just needed guidance in the right direction, to be shown that there's more to life than death and destruction. And now he was going to die, totally misunderstood and alone. I always had a moral code when it came to life, telling me not to hit a girl unless my life was in imminent danger, and it was unavoidable, and to never kick a man while he was down. If Kuja was any more down, he'd be underground. Even though he'd kidnapped me, blown the hell out of me more times than I can count, picked me up and thrown me off a rather tall building, and generally tried to kill me in as many ways as possible, I couldn't kill him. It would be wrong, horribly wrong. I had to do something to help him, I had to. But what? A thought occurred to me. What if I could prevent his death? Garland had said that Kuja would die when Zidane became an Angel of Death, but he had removed his spirit during the encounter at Pandemonium, so that would technically nullify the timer on Kuja's life. It was a long shot, but I'd need a back up plan. If Kuja did die, then what could I do?

"_Well, you could revive him." _Kirjava perked up in my thoughts.

"_And just how would I do that?"_

"_Well, a spiritseer can rejoin a spirit with it's body, but it's pretty difficult, not to mention dangerous. The seer must sacrifice some of their own essence as a kind of glue, to stick the spirit to back in the body. The essence regenerates afterwards of course, but during the ritual it can be quite dangerous, especially if there's a lot going on around you." _I thought for a second.

"_How about when he's in the bottom of the Iifa Tree, when Zidane tries to save him? I should be able to perform the ritual there right?"_

"_Well, there's nothing stopping you, as long as you get it done before those vines get out of control." _This jarred my brain. Vines. I'd seen them in my dream. It was definitely the vines from the bottom of the Iifa Tree, because of the way they moved and looked. So I'd be tempting fate a little bit if I was to go gallivanting down there. But, if I didn't, Kuja would die. Hmmm, a dilemma of massive proportions. I'd just have to be careful about it.

My train of thought was rudely interrupted by a sharp turn to the left by the Invincible. In my state of thought-filled stupor, I'd failed to realise that the ship was currently in the middle of an aerial warzone. The sky was teeming with silver dragons, launching beams of light at the attacking airships, which were giving out just as much as they were receiving, if not more. The ship swerved again, this time avoiding a small formation of the monsters flying straight towards the windscreen. The Lindblum Airforce were having problems of their own, several dragons had now landed on the ships, just under the cannons, and were tearing huge chunks away from the hulls of the damaged fleet. Right in the centre was the crowning glory of the Hilda Garde 3, blasting away at anything that moved. Again the airship swerved, this time throwing anyone not holding anything right across the bridge. Just then, I noticed a group of dragons charging up their powerful blasts of energy, and we all watched in terror as they prepared to fire. Suddenly, a massive airship collided with it, knocking it out of the sky. Steiner jumped up and down in joy.

"The Red Rose! Could it be...Beatrix?" He looked almost overwhelming with confusion and happiness at the same time. Zidane laughed loudly.

"Quite a woman you fell in love with!" He shouted over the explosions and sounds of impact from the battle.

"You're one to talk!" He retorted, before realising what he'd just said and hid in the corner. Dagger placed her hands on her hips and looked at him with a gaze that could petrify a stone golem.

"What did you mean by that?" She shouted, as an incredible humming got louder and louder. Memoria was getting ever so closer. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Quite a hole you've dug yourself into!" I shouted, as the humming became almost deafening in frequency. At that moment, the world turned completely and utterly white, all sound suddenly vanishing. I looked around, seeing nothing but an endlessly wide plain of nothingness. "Oh great, now what?" I muttered, frustrated. I was suddenly on the top of some sort of tower, in the pouring rain. I gazed forwards and saw two figures stood silently in the downpour. One of them was easily recognisable as Vincent, my ancestor, and the other was dark brother Draco, responsible for the destruction of practically the entire Spiritseer race.

"Why! How could you do this?" Vincent demanded angrily, shaking his fists in fury. Draco laughed and looked upwards into the sky, a fork of lightning flashed behind him. I looked out over the edge of the tower and saw a colossal battle taking place far below.

"Isn't it beautiful, brother? A world without your cursed kind, a world in which life and death are equal partners!" He shouted, laughing again. The tower beneath my feet shuddered threateningly, as if a giant had just smashed it's fists into it.

"My brother died four years ago, when this war began!" He was almost on the verge of tears. "Instead, this...imposter... has wreaked havoc on the universes, killed everyone I held dear, and still reckons he did it for the good of mankind!" Draco looked down from the skies, leveling his gaze at his brother.

"Oh, but it is. Why can't your pathetic race embrace the Universal Re-Alignment, let the universe start over? Mankind has already ruined it, the crystals are dying, dear brother." What the bloody hell was he blabbering on about? What crystals?

"I can't let that happen, it's the one reason we were put here! We have to stop a universal realignment, it would destroy everything!"

"Destroy? No. It would wipe the slate clean, allow the universes to begin afresh. We can't you accept the truth? This is the destiny of every pathetic lifeform in the universe, to perish!" Okay, this was really confusing me now. What the heck was going on? Draco sighed and raised his arm, aiming the crossbow at his brother. "Alas, I grow tired of this conversation..." His eyes narrowed. "...and of your existence." Before Vincent could move, Draco fired, the bolt streaking through the air and striking him hard in the chest. He groaned, grasping at the bolt stuck firmly inside him. He sank to the ground, shaking slightly in pain. Draco walked over, looking down at the fallen man. "How pathetic. You can't even die correctly." He leveled the crossbow down against his brother's head. "Sleep tight." Vincent moved in the blink of an eye, pointing a silver handgun towards Draco's face, firing instantly. The shot blew straight through the man's skull, blowing it's slimy contents out all over the place. He didn't move, and I watched in sickened horror as his head reformed itself, the terrible smirk still on his face.

"What the hell?" Without hesitation, Draco finished his brother off, and looked in my direction, a smile on his face.

"I see he left you something behind, how interesting." Right then, the vision stopped and I returned to reality with a bump.

"You alright?" I saw Melissa's face straight in front of me, frowning slightly.

"Yeah, another vision." I explained, climbing to my feet unsteadily. "A very strange one. It didn't look like the future." I surveyed the bridge with much interest. The glass at the front of the ship was shattered, and the corpse of a larger silver and purple dragon lay in the middle of the chamber. Melissa noted my line of sight.

"You missed the mother of all battles, that thing was tougher than it looked." She grinned and we moved towards the teleporter.

Outside, Memoria was mind-bendingly strange. It seemed to be a huge combination of structures built vertically into the heavens, and seemed to be building itself perpetually at the top.

"The city of memories." I heard Neil murmur in awe. Suddenly, I heard a faint voice in the distance.

"Zidane..."

"Did someone just call my name?" Zidane looked around at us, most people shook their heads but Melissa and myself nodded. A faint figure came into view just ahead, the ghostly figure of Garland.

"I'm speaking to just you Zidane." He said, and I was highly tempted to disagree, but my thoughts got the better of me.

"What's going on Garland? What is this place?"

"Memoria, a place of memories." I tried to pay attention, but something was distracting me. An image in the far distance, of a crystal enshrouded in a boiling shield of light. I tried to focus on it, and found my mind clouding over again, yet another vision prying its way into my skull. Instead of the usual immersive visions I usually had, this one was like watching a movie, only inside my eyes. I saw a small metal hatch in the middle of a well lit chamber, just like in Mount Gulug. The hatch opened by itself, allowing a ghastly presence to emerge, shimmering in the light. It looked in my direction, and drifted away down the tunnel that we had entered the imposing mountain through a few days ago. Before I could get too comfortable though, the vision ended, leaving me back in the presence of my friends. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. This was getting incredibly confusing, and I had a feeling it could only get worse.

After the long journey through the mind-bending world of Memoria, and the sparkling, shiny Crystal World, we finally reached the final destination: the Life Crystal. The platform we stood on was made out of the same crytilline substance that the last area had been composed of, taking light from any source and blasting it back out in random directions in a dazzling display that most of the laser shows back on Earth couldn't touch upon. But we weren't here for the light show. The lone figure of Kuja stood before us, gazing thoughtfully at the Life Crystal, and I suddenly recognised it. It was the crystal I'd seen earlier, and the crystal I'd seen in an earlier vision of Zion, the heart of the city.

"_It's not the same one, just something governing the existence of Gaia."_ Kirjava answered the question before I had chance to even think of asking it. Kuja seemed to notice our arrival, turning around with his arms open invitingly.

"Nice of you to come, isn't it beautiful? The original crystal, the origin of all things." Good thing he didn't know about the real one, hidden deep within Zion. Otherwise, we'd be in serious trouble. "Once I destroy it, everything will be gone: Gaia, Terra, the universe, everything!" He laughed almost maniacally.

"No, the only thing that will be gone is you! I'll take you out right now!" Zidane shouted bravely, and some would say, suicidally. Kuja was almost invincible in his soul trance form, this battle would take a miracle to survive, even worse to put my plan into action. I knew that Kuja would not die at this point, but I still felt a little worried.

"You honestly think you can beat me? Even if you do, Gaia's already doomed. It's assimilation by Terra will involve the cataclysmic destruction of everything on the planet."

"Kuja, you honestly think that this will solve anything? Have you even got your head screwed on straight? If you destroy that crystal, then your spirit will never have respite. It will simply cease to exist, along with the rest of this universe!" Melissa shouted. "What makes you think that death is the end of everything?" There was a fire burning deep within her, she seemed completely unafraid of the fact that this place was going to suffer a complete existence failure quite imminently.

"You're just a coward! Stand and face your death like a man, straight in the face!" Bruce shouted, raising his gleaming sword over his head in defiance. Kuja just shook his head.

"Why should this place exist without me? If I die, you all die!"He shouted, throwing a blast of energy at us. It shot into the floor, blasting a hole clean through it as everyone dived aside. I was a little surprised that Deathguise hadn't turned up, but the storyline was becoming so unstable that I barely knew what to expect next. My thoughts were interrupted as the air next to me hummed with the amount of magical energy crackling through it. Zidane stood up next to Kuja, his dagger's drawn and ready to attack.

"I'm taking you down right now!" He leapt at his brother, blades flashing in fury. Kuja shot aside, his feet not even touching the ground as he skimmed around Zidane, smashing a fiery blast into his back. At that moment, Zidane glowed white, initiating the familiar Trance transformation. We all gawped in awe as this almighty clash of the titans took place right before us. Each combatant was moving so fast that all I could see was a faint glowing blur. While this was taking place, I felt another presence behind us, and turned to see the terrifying form of Deathguise rise up next to our platform.

"Ah, that's where he went!" I shouted as I drew an arrow swiftly from my quiver, launching it into what I presumed to be his face. Neil launched a blast of defiant white light at the unholy beast, blowing a hole clean through it. Freya and Amarant really stole the show though, launching themselves through the air at the horrifying monster, Amarant landing on it's wing and slashing away at it's face with his claw, while Freya launched her spear straight into it's heart, if it even had one in the first place. It roared and flailed it's body in an attempt to remove it's attackers, twisting itself around and snapping at Freya and Amarant. However, these attacks were starting to take effect, as it slowly began to weaken under the blows of so many physical and magical attacks, each blast of magic blowing more holes in it's already weakened body. I watched, impressed as Amarant executed a perfect back-flip, sailing effortlessly through the air and landing with barely a sound, launching a mottled circular blade towards the Deathguise's head, decapitating the beast in one swift blow. Twitching from excess nerve activity, it dropped out of the skies and fell through the cloud cover beneath us, allowing us to turn our attention to the titanic struggle emerging next to the crystal. It seemed that the seers had been intelligent enough to move the original crystal, the Light Crystal back to Zion, leaving behind a little something that simply aided with the governing of Gaia's essence. Very smart. In fact, it was almost as if they had known that this was going to happen. However, it still meant that the crystal's destruction would warrant the appearance of Necron, which still meant we were in a heap of trouble.

My thoughts were interrupted by a scream from Kuja, Zidane's dagger stuck firmly in his chest. He looked down at the crimson that was pouring down the feathery fur that adorned his body, sticking them together in a horrible bloody mess. He looked his brother straight in the eyes, a look of sadness flashing through at the instant before he raised his arms and unleashed all of Hell's fury upon us. The now-familiar blazes of purple-pink light erupted around him, soaring high into the air before coming down towards us. I saw Neil step out and raise his hands, as if concentrating on a spell. The Ultima beams seemed to hit an invisible forcefield above us, right before Neil cried out and we were engulfed in a colossal explosion that seemed to wipe out everything in sight. I felt the heat and power of the blast hit me, throwing down onto the ground unbelievably hard, possibly breaking more bones, but not as badly as the previous encounter I had with Kuja's massive magical power. I writhed for a few seconds on the floor, nothing but a high pitched ringing audible to my ears, before losing consciousness.

Groaning in pain, I awoke in a desolate grey and brown wasteland, a ominous amount of pitch-black cloud hovering high in the sky. I tried to move parts of my body, but they frankly refused to waste the precious amount of life left in me moving. Instead, I left myself looking at the sky, wondering what the hell was going on, right before I heard a shout.

"Oh Christ, where'd that thing some from!" I heard Neil's voice cry out in frustration. I looked at a slightly different angle and saw what he was whining about. Encased in a circular tunnel of what looked vaguely like stone, floated a most magnificent creature. It looked almost human, apart from the fact he had pale blue skin and some holes in his face. Surrounding his body were rotating rings of stone, glowing from unmeasurable amounts of energy flowing from him. It was Necron, and he didn't look like he was in the mood for tea and cakes.

"What the hell is that?" Bruce inquired rather loudly. When told, he shook his fist in anger. "Damn you 40K for improaching on my safe and secure FF world!" There was a general look of confusion amongst the others.

"Not that kind of Necron you idiot, and since when was this place ever safe or secure?" I responded, cutting off his vicious fist-shaking.

"Oh." He replied. I shook my head in sheer disbelief. I stood listening half-heartedly as the deep booming voice of Necron began a tedious monologue, speaking about how life and death were the same, Christ, didn't these guys ever give it a break?

After line after line of crud, I patted Zidane on the shoulder.

"Hate to break it to you, but only four of us can fight. The rest are stuck watching the show." He nodded and chose Vivi, Steiner and Dagger. They all looked at each other, the silence speaking louder than any words could at that time, and each of them ascended into the realms above. I stood, preparing to watch, when I was hit by another vision, this time of something much different than the previous ones, something more distant and complicated than I had ever imagined. This even felt different, an indescribable sense that something had changed, or was about to change. My thoughts were brought to a play in Alexandria. Zidane stood proudly on the stage, hugging a beyond happy Dagger, who was robed in a beautiful royal gown. I looked on, watching as this happy couple shared a kiss, before feeling a warm hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Kuja, who's face was hidden from view behind a black hooded cloak. He looked at his brother and smiled warmly for the first time I had ever known. Just then, the vision ended, and I found myself over-looking the Iifa Tree. I shook my head, and looked around at the others. Zidane was comforting Dagger, and looking worriedly at the writhing vines around the aged tree. I watched worriedly too, knowing that that ominous tree held either my life or my horrifying death at stake. Suddenly, I felt a gust of wind behind me, and looked to see the Hilda Garde 3 descend gracefully into the clearing behind me, whipping up dust in it's descent.

"Looks like Cid's come to save the day!" Zidane proclaimed, shouting to the man waving frantically over the side. He took a step forwards before stopping suddenly. His face looked torn between two things, before he shrugged. "Aw dammit." He muttered. "He's still alive." Here it came.

"He can't be..." Dagger uttered softly. Zidane nodded and turned to Steiner.

"Steiner, take good care of Dagger." Steiner spluttered in confusion.

"Kuja's alive, you armour-plated nincompoop." I explained, while Zidane agreed, not even bothering to ask how I knew.

"That's right, I can't just leave him." He nodded.

"...and neither can I." I finished, provoking a shocked outburst from just about everybody.

"Hey whoa there, this is my moment--" He started before I interrupted him.

"Whether you like it or not, I'm coming with you. If you want to save Kuja you'll need my help."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because I'm the only one here able to raise the dead." He started to say something before I cut him off again. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing." I assured him.

"But it's too dangerous! You know damn well what happens after this Chris!" Neil argued.

"That's why I have to go. If everything goes to plan, then more than one life can be saved here." He looked a little confused, but nodded reluctantly. Cid was busy waving at us from the ship.

"Come quickly, we don't have much time!" The group hopped on the ship one by one. While Dagger said her last goodbyes to Zidane, I turned to Melissa, who seemed to be torn between helplessness and understanding.

"Well, I guess this it, the moment of truth." I told her, she smiled weakly before hugging me.

"Come back alive." She whispered in my ear before climbing aboard the Hilda Garde. As the ship took off, everyone waved anxiously at us.

"_Worried?"_ Kirjava's voice bubbled into my thoughts.

"_Nah, whatever happens, happens."_

"_Bull."_

"_Okay, so my stomach feels like it's been tied up by a champion arm wrestler, and my brain is near systemic collapse from the sheer amount of stress I'm feeling, but in the end...I guess we have to break the walls and walk our own path sometimes, right?"_

"_Riiiiiight. Just don't get us killed." _I turned to Zidane.

"You ready?" I asked the genome, to which he nodded. We turned to the cliff edge, staring at the writhing mass of tendrils blocking our path. "Oh, by the way. You might want to watch out behind you." I warned him right before an angry vine burst through the floor behind us and shoved us over the edge. Zidane caught hold of another vine, sliding along and following the path towards the trunk. I followed him closely, dodging crazy vines that were swiping at us left, right and centre. Sliding around insanely, we finally reached the main trunk, only to be thrown through a gaping hole in the wood by the bucking mass of life beneath our feet. Soaring clumsily though the air, we landed with a thud right next to the prone silvery-white form of Kuja. I climbed to my feet, checking Kuja over. He wasn't in too bad a state, the obvious wound from Zidane still gaping in his chest.

"Keep talking Kuja." I advised him, but he looked at me as if I was insane.

"Why are you two helping me?" He asked weakly.

"Wouldn't you do the same for me if I was dying?" Zidane replied as I checked his essence, noting that it was getting weaker by the second.

"What use is it? I'm going to die anyway."

"Yes, but it's what happens after you die that's going to be important." He looked as if he didn't understand, so I sighed and moved into the spiritual realm, where I could get a better chance at reviving him. Zidane's form moved over his brother's, shaking him as Kuja slowly got up in my realm.

"I guess it's too late now, I finally learnt what it means to live." He looked very depressed.

"Don't start crying on me, just lie back down and relax." I told him, and for once he did as he was ordered. Helpfully, Kirjava fed my mind with the instructions I needed to start bonding him back to his body. First, I started with his right hand, feeling my existence bond with his, pushing his hand into it's body part, like a neat fitting glove. I felt something click in my mind, and I started to press down further, moving more of my life into his lifeless body, pushing more of his spirit back into it's rightful place. I moved down the body, continuing with the other body parts until I felt one final click. Exhausted, I jumped back to the material realm and watched as Kuja stood up, looking at himself in disbelief. He was about to say something, when he was rudely interrupted by a huge mass of deep green tendrils sweeping into the moss-covered chamber. They swept around the room, and I felt a strange sense of understanding in my mind before the darted towards us. Utter calm filled my body as I felt my body being smashed against the wall, welcoming the darkness that soon enveloped me.

_**To be continued...**_

That's it folks! The end has arrived finally, after many long years of hard work. I'd like to thank everyone who ever reviewed this story, I really, really appreciate you taking the time out of your no-doubt busy lives to write a few words. I'd also like to thank anyone who's even read this, even if you are completely lazy sods when it comes to reviewing!

As to what happens next? Well, just read the bold writing above and take a wild guess.

This is Ulthran, signing off...

* * *

_Update: 30/04/05  
_I have posted the sequel to this fic, "Reality Check: Back To Reality" on ready for viewing. I'd post a link, but they don't seem to work. 


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